The use of solar energy in steel industries

The purpose of this study is to make a design and simulation of the solar photovoltaic system which would attempt to cover the energy demand of the initial part of the pickling line hydraulic system at the SSAB steel plant. Proposed photovoltaic pumping systems in this work are to run the system into the hydraulic pump directly, developing of PV systems which produce energy in DC form. The second proposed photovoltaic technology is a type of PV system which delivers power to an AC load. Hydraulic system studied and evaluated and control components performance evaluated to yield a proper set of guidelines contributing towards future energy savings. The study shows that one PV system can deliver energy to an AC motor-pump set covering 17.6% of total energy and another PV system can supply a DC hydraulic pump substituting 26.7% of the demand. The study includes that the PV system can supply a significant part of the energy demand of the industrial system such as the initial part of the pickling line hydraulic system at the SSAB steel plant. Hydraulic accumulators can work as solar energy storage quite effectively. The studied method is to generate a realistic load sequence for the simulation of the PV system through precise energy consumption calculations within the hydraulic line. The energy efficiency analysis could show that the initial part pickling line hydraulic system works with a low efficiency of 3.3%.