Virtual Sinter®: Digital Twin for Integrated Sinter Plants

Sinter Plants, that produce iron ore sinter, are important units in an integrated steel plant. They face several operational challenges due to frequent changes in input raw materials, the inability to instrument key equipment in the plant, and the absence of real-time sinter quality measurement. To address these challenges, Virtual Sinter ® , a digital twin of the integrated sinter plant is developed and presented here. Virtual Sinter ® is a software tool that utilizes physics-based and data-driven models to simulate the operation of all the unit operations in the sinter plant and predict sinter quality in real time using raw material data and process parameters as inputs. The physics-based models in Virtual Sinter ® also act as soft sensors and estimate parameters such as granule size distributions, green bed voidage, and sinter bed temperatures that are difficult to measure online, thereby bringing additional visibility into the operation of key units. Virtual Sinter ® also monitors and detects deviations in key process and quality parameters and diagnoses the root causes of such deviations in real time to enable operators take corrective actions at the right time. It also identifies, through process optimization, optimal settings for improving plant productivity, sinter yield and quality, and minimizing fuel consumption, emissions, and overall cost of operation. Virtual Sinter ® can also be utilized for designing raw material blends and as an operator training simulator.