Using simulated annealing to minimize operational costs in the steel making industry

This paper focuses on the production of a mixture with high content of iron used for the production of first fusion iron in blast furnaces for the steel making process, called "sinter". The "sinter" is composed of several materials, mainly dolomite, lime, limestone, coal, and a mixture of ferrous minerals which are bought from other mining industries all around the world. Since the final product is going to be used in the blast furnace, some chemical composition requirements have to be fulfilled. By using simulated annealing the cost per ton of produced "sinter" can be minimized and the requirements established by the blast furnace department can be fulfilled. Also, the computation time can be lowered and therefore it reduces the man hour costs. Some tests were performed to compare our proposed method with the traditional one, and we show that considerable cost reductions were achieved.