Development of Measures to Improve the Efficiency of Using Pulverized Coal in Blast Furnace Smelting

Efficiency of using of pulverized coal injection (PCI) in blast furnace smelting depends directly on its cost price. For the preparation of PCI at Russian enterprises, mainly non-coking lean and gas coals of Kuzbass are used, which does not provide the desired reduction in costs for the production of cast-iron for JSC EVRAZ NTMK andPJSC NLMK due to high transportation costs. In this connection, the possibility of using petroleum coke and coke dust in the composition of pulverized coal for blast furnace smelting had been analyzed. Main obstacle to the use of petroleum coke is its high sulfur content. Optimal proportion of the petroleum coke in the composition of the PCI is determined, depending on the total consumption of PCI and the sulfur content in it. Experimental-industrial tests were conducted to introduce coke dust from the dry coke quenching plant into the charge of pulverized-coal fuel. Totally, petcoke and coke dust can replace up to 25% of imported coal and reduce fuel costs by 4–5%. Keywords: blast furnace, pulverized coal injection (PCI), coke dust, petroleum coke (petcoke), sinte