Uncovering Fundamental Mechanisms to Enable Sustainable Steel Manufacturing

钢是现代社会的骨干材料。全球钢铁需求持续增长，预计到2050年将翻一番。严格的环境法规、新能源、政府对制造业的支持，以及英国和全球钢铁行业的重组，正在创造机会，彻底改变该行业，生产低碳、高附加值的钢铁。这就迫切需要一个强大的英国过程冶金研究基地，这将有助于将英国钢铁工业转变为更可持续的运营。该奖学金正好符合英国钢铁行业的这一迫切需求。在这个EPSRC制造奖学金下，我将把工业界的最佳实践带到学术界。我将建立一个国际公认的多学科研究团队，该团队将建立研究（理论、实验和建模）能力，并创造实现钢铁提取、精炼和铸造变革所需的基础知识，并解决未来全球能源、二氧化碳监管和供过于求的大趋势。一个重点领域将是低碳、低能源和灵活的炼铁工艺，包括HIsarna技术。HIsarna工艺是一项有前途的突破性技术，作为传统高炉炼铁的替代方案，由ULCOS（超低二氧化碳炼钢）项目（www.ulcos.org）创建。从2011年到2014年，在塔塔钢铁公司建造的年产6万吨铁水的试验工厂上，HIsarna技术的概念已经通过四次运营活动成功验证。已证实的优势包括：非常高的能源效率；原料灵活（直接使用动力煤、细粒铁矿、废氧化物），无需焦化和矿石结块；一次能源和二氧化碳减排20%或以上；利用顶部气体的碳捕集与封存（CCS）技术，可能减少高达80%的二氧化碳排放量；灵活的操作。与目前的高炉炼铁相比，HIsarna（不含CCS）的二氧化碳减排明显更高，达到35%或以上，这可以通过进一步结合同时熔化废铁、生物质注入（部分取代煤）和过程中的碳氢化合物注入来实现。然而，HIsarna技术面临着巨大的挑战。其规模扩大的一个关键方面是，由于其创新性质，一些关键的科学机制尚未被发现，但将在本奖学金中发现。这些研究包括：(1)量化了反应渣-金属液滴系统中由于元素（O， S等）在渣-金属液滴界面传质而产生的动态界面现象及其对渣中FeO快速还原的重要作用；(2)烃与渣、金属和气体之间的反应机理和反应速率。在该奖学金下，我还将建立建模能力（CFD模型和动态过程模型），以开发和优化复杂的制造过程。本奖学金所创造的研究能力和关键知识将应用于研究更省油和更经济的页岩气喷射高炉炼铁、页岩气直接还原铁生产、碱性氧炼钢中的磷精炼、高残余废弃废料回收以及铸造模具中的界面现象。此外，提取冶金的能力将有助于英国开发从废物中回收关键材料和提取Mg和Ti的工艺，并且也将对气化和地质等遇到熔融氧化物相的其他领域有用。该奖学金将在华威大学华威制造集团（WMG）与英国主要钢铁生产商塔塔钢铁公司合作举办。这将有助于释放英国钢铁行业的潜力，使其更具创新性、生产力和竞争力，同时使用更少的资源，减少对环境的影响。

Steel is a backbone material in modern society. Global steel demand is continuously growing and is forecast to double by 2050. Strict environmental regulations, new energy sources, government support for manufacturing, and restructuring of the steel industry in the UK and worldwide are creating the opportunity to revolutionise the industry to produce low carbon, high value added steels. This creates an urgent need for a strong UK research base in process metallurgy that will help transform the UK steel industry into more sustainable operations. This Fellowship aligns well with this urgent need for UK steel industry. Under this EPSRC Manufacturing Fellowship, I will bring best practice in industry to academia. I will establish an internationally recognised multi-disciplinary research team, which will build the research (theoretical, experimental and modelling) capability and create the fundamental knowledge needed to realise transformative changes on extraction, refining and casting of steels, and address the future global mega trends in energy, CO2 regulation and oversupply. A key area of focus will be low carbon, low energy and flexible ironmaking process including HIsarna technology.HIsarna process is a promising breakthrough technology, as an alternative to conventional blast furnace (BF) ironmaking, created under the ULCOS (Ultra-Low CO2 Steelmaking) project (www.ulcos.org). The concept of the HIsarna technology has been successfully validated by four operational campaigns from 2011 to 2014 on the pilot plant with the capacity of 60 kt per year of hot metal constructed at Tata Steel. The confirmed advantages include: very high energy efficiency; flexibility in feed materials (directly using thermal coal, fine iron ore, waste oxides) without coking and ore agglomeration; 20% or above primary energy and CO2 saving; possibly up to 80% CO2 emission reduction with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) of the top gas; and flexible operations. Significantly higher CO2 emission reduction by HIsarna (without CCS), 35% or above compared to current BF ironmaking, can be achieved by further combining simultaneous scrap melting, biomass injection (partially replacing coal) and hydrocarbon injection in the process.However, a significant challenging road lies ahead for the HIsarna technology. One of the critical aspects for its up-scaling is that several critical scientific mechanisms have not been discovered due to its innovative nature, but will be uncovered in this Fellowship. These include (1) quantification of the dynamic interfacial phenomena in the reacting slag-metal droplet system due to the element (O, S etc) mass transfer at the slag-metal droplet interface and their important role on the fast reduction of FeO in slag, and (2) reaction mechanisms and rates between hydrocarbons and slag, metal and gases. Under this Fellowship I will also build the modelling capability (CFD model and dynamic process model) for development and optimisation of complex manufacturing processes.The research capability and the critical knowledge created under this Fellowship will be applied to study more fuel-efficient and economical BF ironmaking by shale gas injection, direct reduced iron production by shale gas, phosphorus refining in basic oxygen steelmaking, high residual obsolete scrap recycling, and interfacial phenomena in the casting mould. Furthermore, a capability on extractive metallurgy will help the UK to develop processes for recovering critical materials from wastes and extracting Mg and Ti, and will also be useful to other areas such as gasification and geology where molten oxide phases are encountered.This Fellowship will be held at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick, in collaboration with Tata Steel, the main steel producer in the UK. It will help unlock the potential of the UK steel industry to be more innovative, productive and competitive, whilst using fewer resources and reducing environmental impact.