Toward learning steelmaking—A review on machine learning for basic oxygen furnace process

Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking is the most widely used process in global steel production today, accounting for around 70% of the industry's output. Due to the physical, mechanical, and chemical complexities involved in the process, conventional monitoring and control methods are often pushed to their limits. The increasing global competition has created a demand for new methods to monitor and control the BOF steelmaking process. Over the past decade, Machine Learning (ML) techniques have garnered substantial attention, offering a promising pathway to enhance efficiency and suitability of steel production. This paper presents the first comprehensive review of ML applications in the BOF steelmaking process. We provide an introduction to both fields: an overview of the BOF steelmaking process and ML. We analyze the existing work on ML applications in BOF steelmaking and synthesize common concepts into categories, supporting the identification of common use cases and approaches. This analysis concludes with the elaboration of challenges, potential solutions, and a future outlook for further research directions.