The ULCOS blast furnace process aims at reducing the CO2 emission of the blast furnace by 50% in two steps:
Decrease of carbon consumption by recycling most of the top gas after CO2 removal, which requires operating the blast furnace with pure oxygen;
Underground storage of CO2. 
The first stage is essential to demonstrate the feasibility of this new process. It has been tested over a 6 week campaign at the LKAB experimental BF in Luleå. The facility was adapted specifically for the trials (including the erection of a VPSA plant). Different operating conditions were investigated. In conclusion, and taking into account underground storage, the CO2 emission at the blast furnace was reduced by up to 76%. For the steelmaking plant, this should result in a net CO2-savings of 65% at the level of the hot rolled coil.

The XXIV IMPC (International Mineral Processing Congress) which took place in Beijing from September 23 to 28, 2008 gave an opportunity to see the important development in Iron Ore processing worldwide, especially in China. This review paper presents: A brief history of the IMPC Congresses as well as the scope of this XXIV IMPC in Beijing; The development of the Iron Ore demand and supply of the Chinese Iron and Steel Industry and the consequences on Iron Ore imports; The impressive expansion of the Iron Ore mining and processing in China.

Construction sector is the major user of Steel, and recycling is very important for the sector itself and also for the Steel industry, as a secondary raw material.
Recycling demonstrations of three building components (steel sandwich panels with polyurethane foam-steel composite structures made of beams, profiled sheeting and reinforcement bars-steel profiles combined with plasterboard partitions) have shown that these steel components are easy to separate and produce a high quality scrap that ensure the profitability of this end-of-life treatment.

The design of a parameter-dependent controller to reject periodic mould level fluctuations at a thin slab caster is presented. These fluctuations can be related to bulging of the solidified steel shell between the supporting rolls. They deteriorate the steel quality and prohibit high speed casting. A state of the art controller has been designed to suppress these casting speed dependent fluctuations and is based on a H∞-optimal controller design technique. The controller has been implemented at caster of the Corus Direct Sheet Plant in IJmuiden. Measurement results show a significant reduction of these periodic mould level fluctuations.

The demand for precious metals by manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment has increased significantly over the past few years. Although precious metal concentrations in appliances are very low, these metals have a high economic and environmental relevance compared to other substances present in much higher quantity (e.g. iron, copper, plastics). This research project aims at describing and quantifying the flows of small waste electrical and electronic equipment (sWEEE) in Germany and in the USA for the year 2007, based on a combination of expansive experimental investigations carried out at TU Berlin and a review of the relevant literature. The results revealed that, in 2007, only around a third of the gold contained in desktop personal computers was recovered in Germany, and over 60% was lost for the cycling economy. Despite the lack of data, insufficient collection and losses of precious metals due to inadequate treatment were identified as the main weaknesses of the system. The results reveal new findings on precious metal cycles and support the development of strategies for reducing the losses of precious metals related to electronic waste management. The method is not only useful for assessing the recovery of valuable substances, but also for quantifying systematically the amount of hazardous substances that is disposed of in an environmental-sound way versus direct releases to the environment.

ULCOS is a large European research project that aims to identify and develop technology that could enable a drastic reduction in CO2 emissions from ore-based steel production. The IRonMAking flowsheeting model (IRMA) has made a vital contribution to one of the ULCOS subprojects, as IRMA models were used to evaluate the economics and CO2 reduction potential of a large number of alternative ironmaking routes.
IRMA is a software tool that allows for the use of thermodynamic data relevant to iron- and steelmaking in a flowsheeting environment. It was developed by Corus to serve as a dedicated, flexible and accessible tool to evaluate and compare a wide range of ironmaking routes.
IRMA can be used to calculate consumption figures, product quality and the occurrence and significance of emissions. IRMA can do this for a wide range of operating conditions and raw material compositions.
IRMA is currently being used for benchmarking, design and pilot plant development of the ISARNA process, which was developed in the context of the ULCOS project. ISARNA is one of the four process routes that have been selected for further development within ULCOS.

Modeling activities and scenario building are at the heart of the economic analysis delivered by the ULCOS program. Two main objectives were followed in the framework of SP9. First the modeling team had to provide a set of coherent energy economic scenarios using POLES model. Second, the economic conditions for the emergence of the ULCOS technologies were analyzed. ULCOS contributes to the elaboration of contrasted scenarios that the steel industry could face in the long term. To aim at these objectives specific tools have been used: POLES model for the global energy system modeling and ISIM model for the steel sector based prospective (Hidalgo, 2003). The most promising steel production technologies identified in ULCOS Phase 1 have been introduced into ISIM as generic technologies. ISIM was then integrated as a module into POLES modeling system. The main model outputs are the energy prices and mixes and the steel sector balances with a focus on the technology mix. Actually the climate policy scenarios developed in project allow making recommendations to the steel industry in terms of sustainable development but also in terms of business strategy.

The technical requirements applied for the scheme installed at ArcelorMittal Tubarão for automatic separation of the utility electrical systems are presented. The criteria adopted for the settings of the electrical protections that compose the philosophy of the grid separation scheme are treated as well. Historical results and real cases are used to evaluate the system performance.

The role of slag in ladle metallurgy and tundish is discussed starting from thermodynamic considerations of equilibrium/non-equilibrium states between slag and steel. Some interesting steel grades with different deoxidation philosophy are chosen as examples. Physical aspects concerning the role of stirring, slag properties e.g. viscosity and interfacial tension are examined as well. The title question is discussed and evaluated based on theoretical considerations and comparison with modelling experiences and industrial data.

Blast furnace models are fundamental tools that interpret many of the phenomena occurring inside the reactor. They can be either diagnosis or predictive, but they require available measurements to validate their outputs. One of the roles of the different R&D Labs of the ArcelorMittal Group is to develop, validate, apply and continuously improve the models for blast furnace operations and analysis. The users' feedback is one important key to success.

The Stefana Bar Mill (Nave, Brescia, Italy) was commissioned in April 2008. The production rate, on a 3-shift basis is 750,000 t/y. The product mix includes straight rebars from 8 mm to 40 mm diameters and compact coils from 8 mm to 16 mm diameters. The salient features of this plant are strictly related to improvement of profitability on low-added value products, concentrating on efficiency and throughput optimization.

The Arab Steel Summit, that convened in Abu Dhabi in April, gave us another opportunity to review the situation of the Arab Iron and Steel Industry, with regard to the present World economic context.
We will address: The World situation of steel production, focusing on the Arab Countries; 
The related situation of steel consumption;
The steel trade, including imports, exports and prices;
The consequences for technology and economy. 


Existing rolling mills entering the markets for high quality steel may be limited by their descaling systems installed in terms of pressure and flow rate. In addition to the potential for optimizations of existing systems, the potential for optimization of the nozzle design itself has now been fully utilized in order to maximize the impact at a given water flow and pressure. New design methods and production technologies have been applied.

Based on practice, the main factors affecting the process of EAF with De-P HM charging have been theoretically analyzed, such as using oxygen, the material charging and making slag. Based on the process features of EAF with De-P HM charging, EAF productivity increase was achieved with application of the integrated control theory on EAF process in Baosteel Stainless Steel Branch.

The MRS-100 system combines at the same time the simplicity of a linear sliding gate and the advantages of a round plate. This sliding gate is based on 3 innovating approaches: a sliding gate built around a refractory plate, a mechanism that avoids the cracking of plates and finally, an optimisation of the round plate through a programmable sequential rotation at the ladle stand. This MRS-100 system leads to a safe use, an improvement of the tasks at the working station and a reduction of the user costs.

Based on the balance equations of mass, partial mass, momentum and thermal energy, the pyrolysis process of non-coking coals using a counter-rotating twin screw reactor (TSR) is modelled by means of commercial CFD code PhoenicsTM. In favour of good convergence of the mathematical solution, a structured, cylindrical-polar grid is chosen. Variable filling and intermeshing degrees are taken into account by blocking numerical cells in gas domain and intermeshing domain instead of performing two-phase calculations in a body-fitted co-ordinate system. Viscous behaviour of the granular coals is expressed by means of a generalised Newtonian fluid and chemical decomposition is implemented with aid of distributed activation energies.

Uncontrolled pushing force can lead to severe degradation of coke oven walls. To measure the pushing force a torque sensor can easily be installed on the driving shaft of the pushing machine.
The pushing curve shows a typical first peak which corresponds to the end of the coke cake compression phase and the beginning of the coke cake movement. Generally after this peak the pushing force sharply decreases as coke moves, coke weight decreases and oven taper prevents from wall friction.
The first peak is related to the coke cake properties.
Pushing curves may show a progressive increase of pushing force or further peaks depending on the pushing machine and the general condition of the oven.
Safe limit of pushing force first peak is around 1.5 times the coke weight.

The ArcelorMittal's hot dip galvanizing line at Florange developed and commissioned its own coating weight control system. This system actuates the pressure as well as the position of the knives. The fast and accurate response to upsets is partly attributed to the continuous auto-adaptation of the knife-to-strip distance. Large and rapid benefits, i.e. quality improvement and zinc savings, have been taken immediately after it was put into production.

The development of new technologies is often connected with the use of non-renewable resources. In recent years a qualitative shift in the demand of bulk metals (e.g. Fe, Al, Cu) to more scarce metals (e.g. Te, Ga, Re) is recognisable. Novel technologies and products rely more and more on very specific metals which are indispensable for their function. Although such metals are generally used in low concentrations in products, the demand has raised significantly due to mass production. Some of them are of high importance due to their strategic relevance to emerging innovative technologies.
Lithium so far has gained relatively little attention, although it fulfills the main criteria of a strategically relevant metal. In recent years, however, recognition of lithium increased as a result of the growing market for lithium-based rechargeable batteries in mobile information/communication consumer products and in electric vehicles. Both areas of demand led to a skyrocketed use of lithium in recent years.
Other technologies in the future like fusion power generation will raise lithium consumption at an accelerated rate. It is therefore necessary to determine the availability of lithium in the medium and long term in order to prevent technology failures and to ensure a more sustainable development. The authors will provide a wellfounded knowledge base, outline the availability of worldwide reserves and resources, and describe the structure of present and future demands for lithium.

The feasibility of increasing proportion of lump ores in blast furnace was investigated. The lab results showed that self-softening and melting properties of the lump ores were dramatically improved by interaction between sinters and lump ores found in the experiments. Furthermore, the collocation pattern of lump ores and ratio between lump ores was optimized according to interaction. When the proportion of lump ores was up to 23% or 27% at the excellent collocation pattern and appropriate ratio, the burdens still conformed to the requirements of ironmaking.