Challenges for the application of material flow analysis at the level of production processes – case study: Blast furnace process

¹ Christian Doppler Laboratory for Anthropogenic Resources, Institute for Water Quality, Resource and Waste Management, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
verena.trinkel@tuwien.ac.at
² Voestalpine Stahl GmbH, 4020 Linz, Austria
³ Institute for Water Quality, Resource and Waste Management, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Received: 21 September 2015
Accepted: 11 January 2016

Abstract

The method of material flow analysis (MFA) is used to trace flows and stocks of goods and substances within different systems, such as cities and regions, enterprises and industrial processes. However, detailed MFA on an enterprise level hardly exist. The goal of the present paper is to apply MFA on a blast furnace process and to discuss the challenges arising. In particular, heavy metal flows (Chromium, Mercury) through the process are modelled. In a first step transfer coefficients (TC) of the heavy metals have been determined for one particular year (2009) and checked for plausibility. In the second step, these TC have been applied to simulate the heavy metal flows in the outputs of the blast furnace process for the year 2011. These flows have subsequently been compared with the outputs measured. The results show that the application of TC for Cr delivers plausible results for the output flows. Also for Hg the application of the TC seems to be justified, although a detailed investigation of the Hg balance indicates significant differences between the total input and output of Hg. As the amount of Hg detected in the output is larger than in the input (mass balance error greater than 80%), this difference originates most likely from non-detectable Hg contents (concentrations below the limit of quantification) in different iron bearing input flows.