Minimizing Energy Cost in Electric Arc Furnace Steel Making by Optimal Control Designs

Production cost in steel industry is a challenge issue and energy optimization is an important part. This paper proposes an optimal control design aiming at minimizing the production cost of the electric arc furnace steel making. In particular, it is shown that with the structure of an electric arc furnace, the production cost which is a linear programming problem can be solved by the tools of linear quadratic regulation control design that not only provides an optimal solution but also is in a feedback form. Modeling and control designs are validated by the actual production data sets.