Optimal dynamic dispatch of surplus gas among buffer boilers in steel plant

As valuable energy in iron- and steel-making process, by-product gas is widely used in heating and technical processes in steel plant. After being used according to the technical requirements, the surplus by-product gas is usually used for buffer boilers to produce steam. With the rapid development of energy conservation technology and energy consumption level, surplus gas in steel plant continues to get larger. Therefore, it is significant to organize surplus gas among buffer boilers. A dynamic programming model of that issue was established in this work, considering the ramp rate constraint of boilers and the influences of setting gasholders. Then a case study was done. It is shown that dynamic programming dispatch gets more steam generation and less specific gas consumption compared with current proportionate dispatch depending on nominal capacities of boilers. The ignored boiler ramp rate constraint was considered and its contribution to the result validity was pointed out. Finally, the significance of setting gasholders was studied.