Japan: Nippon Steel has reported that ABB’s Ability™ Expert Optimiser has contributed to lower energy consumption and improved product quality at its 1.6Mt/yr Muroran cement plant in Hokkaido, Japan. The digital solution for control, stabilisation and optimisation of industrial processes has reportedly supported the producer to reduce specific heat consumption by 2%. Free lime was also reported to have decreased by about 10%, resulting in a higher-grade output. ABB completed a performance evaluation to validate the results on Nippon Steel’s operation with and without the Expert Optimiser in place.
Following the first commissioning phase with Expert Optimiser in place, automatic operation exceeded 90%. The system also reduced manual operator interventions by approximately 80% and maintained effective process control during preheater cleaning and other abnormal operating conditions.
Nippon Steel produces blast furnace slag cement as part of its steelmaking business and is moving towards highly automated or autonomous operations. The product is categorised as a low-carbon cement because the total CO₂ is around 40% less than ordinary Portland cement (OPC) when clinker is replaced by slag.
Expert Optimiser reduces emissions impacts further by utilising model predictive control (MPC) processes and AI to predict occurrences and automatically take actions in response to variables such as temperature, pressure or exhaust gas concentrations. Frequent controls are increasingly important to reduce process variability and meet productivity, cost reduction and quality targets.
“Reducing manual operator intervention and cutting fossil fuel consumption are key priorities as we work toward carbon neutrality,” said Hiroyuki Abe, plant manager. “We selected ABB Ability Expert Optimiser because it offered the best path to achieving those goals. We have seen significant improvements in process stability, clinker quality and overall operational consistency, while reducing the need for manual control. We look forward to building on these results with even more advanced operations in the future.”
