Orders for eight new Danieli Zerobucket electric arc furnaces have been placed by five Chinese steelmakers over the last six months.

Qiananshi Jiujiang, Hebei Puyang, Tangshan Zhongshou, Changshu Longteng and Zhejiang Yuxin relied on Danieli electric steelmaking Zerobucket technology for their investments in new melting units.

All of them selected the original Danieli horizontal, continuous scrap-charge system, which ensures smooth, endless, hot-scrap charging thanks to ECS pre-heating, which already has been proven by great performances, including energy recovery and lowest CO2 footprint at several installations.

Danieli Zerobucket EAFs are the most flexible melting units, allowing a wide range of charge mixes such as hot-metal, DRI, HBI and scrap.

They can work with up to 80% of hot-metal charge replacing BOF converters and obtaining outstanding results in terms of short tap-to-tap time, boosting the overall steelmaking plant productivity.

All the furnaces will be equipped with Danieli Automation system, including advanced Electrode Regulator Q-REG with melting profile optimization. Danieli process control systems facilitate furnace startups, making them quick.

The ordered furnaces will have capacities from 210 to 330 tph, and are expected to start operation between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.

Four of these Danieli Zerobucket EAFs were ordered by Qiananshi Jiujiang, and the one ordered by Zhejiang Yuxin will also feature the first Tornado scrap conveyor system.

The new, Danieli-patented Tornado conveyor –the very latest continuous scrap-charge design– features a variable-geometry preheating zone to automatically adjust and adapt the free cross-section, to create the optimal conditions for fume speed, temperature and process control.

The patented Tornado variable cross-section allows the best pre-heating results with different scrap types available from the market, thus giving maximum purchase flexibility.