Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Biocarbon Injection Behavior for Electric Arc Furnace Slag Foaming

Integrating renewable carbon sources into electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking requires an understanding not only of their reaction chemistry but also of their injectability under realistic process conditions. Biocarbon has emerged as a promising candidate, yet its physical delivery to the slag and its capacity to initiate foaming remain largely unquantified. This study introduces a novel laboratory‐scale setup featuring a scaled‐down industrial injector combined with an induction furnace to simulate EAF steelmaking. The setup enabled the evaluation of biocarbon injection behavior and slag foaming response. Experimental results demonstrate that biocarbon can be successfully injected to penetrate the molten slag and initiate foaming. However, slag foaming performance exhibits a pronounced decline beyond a critical injector working distance (WD), rather than a gradual decrease. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, used to interpret this behavior, revealed a sharp drop in particle velocity past this distance. These findings provide a systematic evaluation of biocarbon injection behavior for slag foaming and offer practical insights for its implementation in sustainable electric steelmaking.