Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Yichao Hu, Thomas E. Rufford, Jian Chen, Liangyuan Hao, Mengran Li, Yinxuan Qiu, Sahil Garg, Victor Rudolph, Geoff Wang
Summary: This study evaluates the potential energy savings and CO2 emissions reductions by converting CO2 in blast furnace gases to CO using an electrochemical process and recycling it back to the furnace. Modeling results show that introducing CO2 electrolysis can reduce coke consumption to 260 kg/tHM and achieve up to 40% reduction in CO2 emissions per ton of hot metal. However, realizing these savings requires zero-carbon electricity and improvements in the efficiency and selectivity of CO2 electrolysis.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Zhiyuan Fan, S. Julio Friedmann
Summary: With the urgency to transition to a net-zero CO2 economy, governments and industries are focusing on decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like steel making. Current decarbonization technologies have limitations, and achieving deep decarbonization in the iron and steel industry will require a combination of factors including cost and technical maturity.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Daniel J. C. Stewart, David Thomson, Andrew R. Barron
Summary: Zinc-contaminated steelmaking by-products pose a recycling challenge, but Rotary Hearth Furnaces offer a solution by recovering iron and zinc through carbothermal reduction. New RHF processes like ITmk3 and e-nugget produce pig iron nuggets from iron ore concentrates and coal, achieving quality separation of iron and gangue without additional melting units. Computational studies show that high-quality pig iron nuggets can be produced from BF dust and BOS dust with the addition of SiO2 and MgO at a specific temperature.
RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING
(2021)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Junfang Li, Chunjie Yang, Shujia Xie, Yuxuan Li, Zhiqi Su
Summary: In order to optimize the blast furnace ironmaking process, a transfer optimization framework is proposed. It consists of a two-stage generation mapping algorithm for transforming constrained to unconstrained optimization, and an improved grey wolf optimizer algorithm for locating optimal solutions. The method's effectiveness is validated through numerical tests and practical data.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Wenhe Wu, Rong Zhu, Guangsheng Wei, Kai Dong, Juanjuan Jiang, Bin Chen
Summary: Ironmaking and steelmaking industries are major sources of CO2 emissions, but using recycled CO2 gas in blast furnaces can help reduce emissions. The reaction of CO2 with carbon can produce CO gas, which further undergoes oxidation to CO2. However, this process may cool the furnace and impact its operation, requiring heat supplementation methods to offset the heat loss.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2021)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Manuel Bailera
Summary: This paper evaluates the injection of different types of syngas in air-blown blast furnaces, oxygen blast furnaces, and advanced oxygen blast furnaces. An Aspen Plus model based on the extended operating line methodology is used for simulation. Seven key performance indicators are defined for the study. The results show that the lowest net CO2 emissions are achieved in oxygen blast furnace with injection of syngas from reverse water-gas shift reaction.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Ziguang Zhao, Xiaobing Yu, Yansong Shen
Summary: This study investigates the impacts of wet burden charging on in-furnace phenomena of ironmaking blast furnaces using a transient BF model. The results show that charging wet burden significantly increases the coke rate and decreases the top gas temperature. Remedies for heavy rain weather are also studied, indicating that reducing oxygen enrichment and reusing dry burden can restore BF performance.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Xianmei Liu, Rui Peng, Caiquan Bai, Yuanying Chi, Hao Li, Pibin Guo
Summary: This study evaluates the environmental impact of China's iron and steel industry and explores deep decarbonisation pathways. The blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace process has a significant contribution to global warming potential, while converter negative energy steelmaking technology has the highest energy savings. Technological improvement can significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the industry.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Review
Energy & Fuels
Behnaz Rahmatmand, Arash Tahmasebi, Hannah Lomas, Tom Honeyands, Pramod Koshy, Kim Hockings, Apsara Jayasekara
Summary: Blast furnace technology remains the main ironmaking route, accounting for 70% of global share. Reducing fossil carbon consumption and CO2 emissions in blast furnace operations is crucial for decarbonizing steelmaking. Various solutions such as introducing renewable carbon-based materials, using hydrogen-enriched reducing gases, oxygen enrichment, and carbon capture and storage/utilization have been considered. Improving the hydrogen-to-carbon replacement ratio is key to enhancing the sustainability of blast furnace operations. This paper reviews the impact of alternative reducing agents on coke gasification behavior, degradation mechanism, and consumption rate in blast furnaces.
Review
Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
Wei Zhang, Jing Dai, Chengzhi Li, Xiaobing Yu, Zhengliang Xue, Henrik Saxen
Summary: The theoretical study of the oxygen blast furnace process has led to suggestions for revisions of static and dynamic models, focusing on the newest theoretical findings in thermodynamics and kinetics. Further development of models concentrating on energy demand and emissions are recommended for enhanced efficiency and sustainability.
STEEL RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Olli Vitikka, Mikko Iljana, Anne Heikkila, Illia Tkalenko, Nikita Koriuchev, Daniel Shehovsov, Andrey Malkki, Timo Fabritius
Summary: This study evaluated the performance of auger pressing briquettes made from blast furnace sludge and mill scale, and confirmed their suitability for ironmaking in a blast furnace through experimental verification.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Mikolaj Bernasowski, Arkadiusz Klimczyk, Ryszard Stachura
Summary: This article discusses the importance of coke layers in blast furnace operation and the methods of identifying individual coke layers in the cohesive zone using numerical calculations and analytical geometry. By calculating the area of coke layers, the blast furnace operation can be quickly assessed subjectively by its crew.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Siwei Lou, Chunjie Yang, Xiongzhuo Zhu, Hanwen Zhang, Ping Wu
Summary: This paper proposes a novel method called adaptive dynamic interpretable analytic stationary subspace analysis (DiASSA) for detecting faults in blast furnace ironmaking process (BFIP). The method distinguishes dynamic, static, and nonstationary components from BFIP data using an inferential observation decomposition strategy and estimates dynamic consistent features within a closed region through an iterative modeling algorithm to effectively isolate dynamics and statics. The static part is further modeled by ordinary analytic stationary subspace analysis (ASSA) to construct static consistent features and eliminate the interference of nonstationary information. An adaptive fault detection strategy is also developed, using exponentially weighted statistic structures and adaptive threshold settings to enhance detection efficiency and robustness. Theoretical investigations and case studies confirm the advantages of the proposed method over traditional methods.
INFORMATION SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Wang Liang, Guangwei Wang, Runsheng Xu, Xiaojun Ning, Jianliang Zhang, Xingmin Guo, Chunhe Jiang, Chuan Wang
Summary: This study aims to assess the impact of life cycle assessment on the traditional fossil fuel blast furnace ironmaking process and the biomass hydrochar blast furnace ironmaking process. The Simapro v9.0 software is used to comprehensively evaluate the life cycle impacts of biomass hydrochar in the blast furnace ironmaking process. The results show that biomass hydrochar used in the metallurgical process is more suitable for sustainable development of the ecological environment.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Xudong Gao, Run Zhang, Zhixiong You, Wenzhou Yu, Jie Dang, Chenguang Bai
Summary: This study establishes the operating window for smelting vanadium-bearing titanomagnetite in a blast furnace based on the energy and mass balance of the furnace. It calculates and analyzes the effects of injecting different amounts of hydrogen-rich gases on the adiabatic flame temperature and top gas temperature, as well as the influence of blast temperature and preheating temperature of the gases on the operating window. The study provides a theoretical reference for the practice of hydrogen-rich smelting in a blast furnace.
