Modelo de programação linear para otimizar o consumo de matérias-primas em altos-fornos

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a linear programming model to support the assembly of burden for consumption in blast furnaces. For mounting a blast furnace burden must decide the amount of each type of raw material to be put into the furnace. This decision strongly influences the final cost and product quality, as well as impact on the stability and preservation of the equipment. The blast furnace addressed in this work is the possibility of consumption of different types of raw materials and suffers from the dynamism in the need for changes in mixtures. Currently, these changes are based on the experience of the technician. For the formulation of the burden assembly model, it was first performed contextualization of the problem for the blast furnace in question. After this step, the mathematical modeling of the problem was initiated using linear programming with an objective function is to minimize the cost of the product. Both technological and commercial restrictions have been set. Technological constraints were related to the generated byproduct, slag, and the product, the pig iron. Commercial restrictions, defined based on the availability and quality of each type of raw material. In a second moment, the implementation of the proposed optimization model was performed. The computational results indicated that such a model has good adherence to the current model, with the possibility of reducing the cost of the product through the optimum solutions generated. Finally, the model was applied in simulations involving real process situations, showing to be agile in the analysis of several scenarios before a decision making.