Using coal-dust fuel in Ukrainian and Russian blast furnaces

• Published in: Steel in translation 2008-02, Vol.38 (2), p.124-131
• Main Authors: Minaev, A. A., Ryzhenkov, A. N., Banninkov, Yu. G., Yaroshevskii, S. L., Konovalov, Yu. V., Kuzin, A. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT; 03 NATURAL GAS; Chemistry and Materials Science; COAL; COKE; FUEL CONSUMPTION; FUEL SUBSTITUTION; INJECTION; Materials Science; NATURAL GAS; PULVERIZED FUELS; RUSSIAN FEDERATION; UKRAINE
• ISSN: 0967-0912; 1935-0988
• DOI: 10.3103/S0967091208020095

Ukrainian and Russian blast-furnace production falls short of the best global practices. It is no secret that, having switched to oxygen and natural gas in the 1960s, the blast-furnace industries have improved the batch and technological conditions and have attained a productivity of 2.5 and even 3 t/(m{sup 3} day), but have not been able to reduce coke consumption below 400 kg/t, which was the industry standard 40 years ago. The situation is particularly bad in Ukraine: in 2007, furnace productivity was 1.5-2 t/m{sup 3}, with a coke consumption of 432-530 kg/t. Theoretical considerations and industrial experience over the last 20 years show that the large-scale introduction of pulverized fuel, with simultaneous improvement in coke quality and in batch and technological conditions, is the only immediately available means of reducing coke consumption considerably (by 20-40%). By this means, natural-gas consumption is reduced or eliminated, and the efficiency of blast-furnace production and ferrous metallurgy as a whole is increased.