Quantitative Analysis of Pig Iron from Steel Industry by Handheld Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and Partial Least Square (PLS) Algorithm

One of the main objectives in the steel production process is to obtain a blast furnace pig iron of good quality and at the lowest possible cost. In general, the quality of pig iron is evaluated on the basis of its chemical composition determined by X-ray fluorescence laboratory equipment. In the present study, the performance of a handheld (h) laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument in the identification and the quantification of the relevant elements C, Mn, P, Si, and Ti in forty-six blast furnace pig iron samples was tested successfully. The application of two different models, i.e., univariate and multivariate partial least square (PLS) calibration and validation, to the whole LIBS data set showed that the latter approach was much more efficient than the former one in quantifying all elements considered, especially Si and Ti.