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U.S. Department of Energy
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Production increase with high rates of natural gas injection at Acme Steel and National Steel`s Granite City Division

Book ·
OSTI ID:460613
; ; ;  [1];  [2];  [3]; ;  [4]
  1. Charles River Associates, Boston, MA (United States)
  2. Acme Steel, Chicago, IL (United States)
  3. National Steel Corp., Granite City, IL (United States)
  4. Gas Research Inst., Chicago, IL (United States)
Supplemental fuels are injected at the tuyere level of blast furnaces to reduce coke consumption and increase productivity. Natural gas use in blast furnace injection has increased substantially in recent years as operators became aware of its operating and economic benefits. One of the major conclusions found in the GRI-sponsored tests at A-K Steel was that the prevailing concept of maintaining a high raceway adiabatic flame temperature (RAFT) for high rates of natural gas injection practice was shown to be in error--during tests, RAFT was lowered by about 700 F with no adverse effect on the blast furnace. Subsequent to the field trials, A-K Steel has reported very high productivity on its No. 3 Middletown furnace by injecting over 180 lb/THM of natural gas and by charging over 250 lb/THM of metallic iron as hot briquetted iron. The objectives of these two series of tests on two commercial blast furnaces were to investigate the increase in productivity of the two procedures: (1) By injecting natural gas and oxygen to be performed on ACME Steel`s blast furnace A; and (2) By injecting natural gas with appropriate amounts of metallic burden to be performed on National Steel--Granite City Division`s A furnace. The two series of tests will be described and the results interpreted in sequence.
OSTI ID:
460613
Report Number(s):
CONF-960317--; ISBN 1-886362-12-2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English