Challenges

Smelting optimisation

Poor control of coal addition

Ni content in product and slag deviates from expected ranges

Lab surveys provide imprecise data with significant delay

Unstable ore and coal properties

Digital Advisor for
Smelting Process Control

Solution

Allows adjustment of the coal setpoint to stabilise Ni content in product and reduce losses of Ni in slag

Physics-aware machine learning model forecasts Ni content in metal and slag 14 hours in advance (typical time of a cycle)

Result

Ni content
in product