3D model study of coal/coke combustion in a blast furnace effects of coal properties

A three-dimensional mathematical model of the combustion of pulverized coal and coke has been developed.The model is applied to the blowpipe-tuyere-raceway-coke bed region in an ironmaking blast furnace in one computational domain,which includes two parts:pulverized coal combustion model in the blowpipe-tuyere-raceway cavity and the coal/coke combustion model in the surrounding coke bed.The effects of coal properties are examined comprehensively,in terms of coal burnout and gas species distributions.The results indicate that using a coal of fine particle size or high VM content could improve burnout and would affect the gas composition considerably.The burnout is examined in two ways:compared with burnout along tuyere axis,burnout over the raceway surface is a more sensitive and sensible parameter to describe the amount of unburnt char entering the coke bed.The model is useful for examining the flow-thermo-chemical characteristics of the pulverized coal injection (PCI) process under various conditions in a blast furnace.

Gas-Particle Flow and Combustion Characteristics of Pulverized Coal Injection in Blast Furnace Raceway

The two-dimensional steady-state discrete phase mathematical model is developed to analyze gas-particle flow and combustion characteristics of coal particles, as well as components concentration and temperature distribu- tion of coal gas in the process of pulverized coal injection of blast furnace raceway. The results show that a great deal of coal gas discharges on the top of raceway away from the tuyere, and the residence time of coal particles in the re- gion of blowpipe and tuyere is 20 ms or so and 50 ms when it reaches raceway boundary. The pressure is the highest at the bottom of raceway and the maximal temperature is about 2 423 K. The char combustion is mainly carried out in the raceway and the maximum of char burn-out rate attains 3× 10-4 kg/s.

Comparison of semi-coke with traditional pulverized coal injection and iron ore sintering fuels based on chemical structure and combustion behavior

Substantial semi-coke has been produced through the industrialized low-temperature pyrolysis process,which has great potential as an alternative fuel for pulverized coal injection(PCI)and iron ore sintering.X-ray diffraction,Raman spectroscope,and thermal analysis were used to compare the carbon chemical structure and combustion reactivity of semi-coke,pulverized coal,and coke breeze.The results show that the average volatile matter content in 46 types of semi-cokes is 8.94 wt.%.The fluctuation range of the characteristic parameters of the semi-coke chemical structure is d_(002)=(0.352–0.379)nm and A_(D1)/A_(G)=(2.51–7.92),while the fluctuation range of the characteristic parameters of pulverized coal is d_(002)=(0.348–0.373)nm and A_(D1)/A_(G)=(1.71–9.03)(where d_(002)means the interlayer spacing between the aromatic planes,and A_(D1)/A_(G)is an index that characterizes the degree of disorder of the char structure through the area ratio of the defect peak band D1 to the perfect graphite peak band G);the overlap between these ranges is relatively high.Contrarily,the fluctuation range of the characteristic parameters of coke breeze is d_(002)=(0.343–0.350)nm and A_(D1)/A_(G)=(0.75–2.51),which is markedly different from that of semi-coke.Semi-coke combustion reactivity is close to that of pulverized coal,but considerably better than that of coke breeze.In terms of chemical structure and combustion reactivity,semi-coke can be used as an alternative fuel for PCI;however,when used for sintering alternative fuel,matching of the heat supply and demand in the later sintering stage must be scrupulously analyzed.

Mechanism of Effect of Microwave Modification on Pulverized Coal Combustion Properties

The mechanism of microwave modification or： facilitating the combustion properties of pulverized coal （PC） was investigated. Experimental researches on granularity and functional group as well as combustion properties of PC before and after modification were carried out. Micromorphology observation indicated that the size of PC par- ticles was relatively small, which was in accordance with the results of granularity analysis of PC. FT-IR （Fourier- transform infrared） spectra of two PCs indicated that the proportion of the functional groups with high activity in- creased after microwave irradiation. Furthermore, no valid effect of microwave was found on carbon matrix except small variations in PC particle size, which only led to subtle improvement in combustion of residual coke. Activation energies of Yungang and Yangquan PCs in temperature zone between 450--650 ℃ were reduced by 12.00% and 10.13%, respectively, which meant that microwave modification might effectively facilitate the combustion proper- ties of PC. Nevertheless, decrease in activation energies of residual cokes was 3.560% and 3.67% respectively, which was subtle and can be regarded as the result of smaller particle size produced by microwave irradiation.

Thermal analysis and kinetic modeling of pulverized coal combustion accompanied with coke breeze

Pulverized coal injection technique has been widely used as a means of reducing coke consumption during ironmaking process.Owing to the increasing shortage of fossil fuels,other substitutes such as biomass,plastic,and waste tires have been studied in recent years.Coke breeze as one of the by-products of coking industries has been investigated as a substitute for partial pulverized coals.The combustion characteristics of blended fuels were estimated based on the flammability index C and the combustion characteristic index S.For different coke breeze additions,the combustion was divided into two stages,and the apparent kinetic parameters of the two stages were estimated by fitting the experimental data to the shrinkage reaction model and shrinkage diffusion model,respectively.Results showed that with the increase in coke breeze addition from 15% to 60%,the indexes C and S decrease,and the activation energy of the first stage remains almost constant,while that of the last stage increases from 16.89 up to 67.18 kJ mol^(-1),which indicates that adding coke breeze decreases the combustion efficiency of pulverized coal.Comparing the combustion and kinetic parameters under different coke breeze addition conditions,the optimal addition amount is suggested to be within 15%.

Interaction mechanism between coal combustion products and coke in raceway of blast furnaces

The interaction mechanism between the combustion products of pulverized coal injected and coke in the raceway of blast furnace was studied through thermodynamic calculation and experiments.The results indicated that additives significantly affected the melting property of coal ash in high temperature zone.Although the unburnt char,raw coal ash,and catalyzed coal ash failed to wet the coke surface,the wettability of the catalyzed coal ash on the coke was greater than that of the raw coal ash.Since the unburnt char had weak reaction with the coke surface,it showed little influence on the surface morphology of the coke.The interaction between the raw coal ash and the coke gave rise to the increase in the pore size on the coke surface.However,the raw coal ash only affected the coke surface and the entrances of the pores owing to its poor fluidity.After being melted,the catalyzed coal ash was expected to immerge into the inside part of the coke and then react with the coke,resulting in an expansion and increase of coke cavities.The raw coal ash and the unburnt char reduced the coke reactivity,while the catalyzed coal ash improved the coke reactivity.Thereinto,the coal ash containing Fe2O3 exhibited a larger influence on the reactivity than that containing CaO.