Research progress and future prospects in the service security of key blast furnace equipment

The safety and longevity of key blast furnace(BF)equipment determine the stable and low-carbon production of iron.This pa-per presents an analysis of the heat transfer characteristics of these components and the uneven distribution of cooling water in parallel pipes based on hydrodynamic principles,discusses the feasible methods for the improvement of BF cooling intensity,and reviews the pre-paration process,performance,and damage characteristics of three key equipment pieces:coolers,tuyeres,and hearth refractories.Fur-thermoere,to attain better control of these critical components under high-temperature working conditions,we propose the application of optimized technologies,such as BF operation and maintenance technology,self-repair technology,and full-lifecycle management techno-logy.Finally,we propose further researches on safety assessments and predictions for key BF equipment under new operating conditions.

Process metallurgy and data-driven prediction and feedback of blast furnace heat indicators

The prediction and control of furnace heat indicators are of great importance for improving the heat levels and conditions of the complex and difficult-to-operate hour-class delay blast furnace(BF)system.In this work,a prediction and feedback model of furnace heat indicators based on the fusion of data-driven and BF ironmaking processes was proposed.The data on raw and fuel materials,process op-eration,smelting state,and slag and iron discharge during the whole BF process comprised 171 variables with 9223 groups of data and were comprehensively analyzed.A novel method for the delay analysis of furnace heat indicators was established.The extracted delay variables were found to play an important role in modeling.The method that combined the genetic algorithm and stacking efficiently im-proved performance compared with the traditional machine learning algorithm in improving the hit ratio of the furnace heat prediction model.The hit ratio for predicting the temperature of hot metal in the error range of±10℃ was 92.4%,and that for the chemical heat of hot metal in the error range of±0.1wt%was 93.3%.On the basis of the furnace heat prediction model and expert experience,a feedback model of furnace heat operation was established to obtain quantitative operation suggestions for stabilizing BF heat levels.These sugges-tions were highly accepted by BF operators.Finally,the comprehensive and dynamic model proposed in this work was successfully ap-plied in a practical BF system.It improved the BF temperature level remarkably,increasing the furnace temperature stability rate from 54.9%to 84.9%.This improvement achieved considerable economic benefits.

Coke behavior with H_(2)O in a hydrogen-enriched blast furnace:A review

Hydrogen-enriched blast furnace ironmaking has become an essential route to reduce CO_(2)emissions in the ironmaking process.However,hydrogen-enriched reduction produces large amounts of H_(2)O,which places new demands on coke quality in a blast furnace.In a hydrogen-rich blast furnace,the presence of H_(2)O promotes the solution loss reaction.This result improves the reactivity of coke,which is 20%-30%higher in a pure H_(2)O atmosphere than in a pure CO_(2)atmosphere.The activation energy range is 110-300 kJ/mol between coke and CO_(2)and 80-170 kJ/mol between coke and H_(2)O.CO_(2)and H_(2)O are shown to have different effects on coke degradation mechanisms.This review provides a comprehensive overview of the effect of H_(2)O on the structure and properties of coke.By exploring the interactions between H_(2)O and coke,several unresolved issues in the field requiring further research were identified.This review aims to provide valuable insights into coke behavior in hydrogen-rich environments and promote the further development of hydrogen-rich blast furnace ironmaking processes.

Cross-upgrading of biomass hydrothermal carbonization and pyrolysis for high quality blast furnace injection fuel production:Physicochemical characteristics and gasification kinetics analysis

The paper proposes a biomass cross-upgrading process that combines hydrothermal carbonization and pyrolysis to produce high-quality blast furnace injection fuel.The results showed that after upgrading,the volatile content of biochar ranged from 16.19%to 45.35%,and the alkali metal content,ash content,and specific surface area were significantly reduced.The optimal route for biochar pro-duction is hydrothermal carbonization-pyrolysis(P-HC),resulting in biochar with a higher calorific value,C=C structure,and increased graphitization degree.The apparent activation energy(E)of the sample ranges from 199.1 to 324.8 kJ/mol,with P-HC having an E of 277.8 kJ/mol,lower than that of raw biomass,primary biochar,and anthracite.This makes P-HC more suitable for blast furnace injection fuel.Additionally,the paper proposes a path for P-HC injection in blast furnaces and calculates potential environmental benefits.P-HC of-fers the highest potential for carbon emission reduction,capable of reducing emissions by 96.04 kg/t when replacing 40wt%coal injec-tion.

Extraction of Valuable Metals from Titanium-bearing Blast Furnace Slag by Acid Leaching

To realize the resource utilization of the valuable metals in the titanium-containing blast furnace slag,the process route of “hydrochloric acid leaching-electrolysis-carbonization and carbon dioxide capture-preparation of calcium carbonate” was proposed.In this study,the influences of process conditions on the leaching rates of calcium,magnesium,aluminum,and iron and the phases of the leaching residue were investigated for the leaching process.The experimental results show that the HCl solution could selectively leach the elements from the titanium-containing blast furnace slag.The better leaching conditions are the HCl solution concentration of 4 mol/L,the leaching time of 30 min,the ratio of liquid volume to solid gas of 10 mL/g,and the stirring paddle speed of 300 r/min.Under the conditions,the leaching rates of calcium,magnesium,aluminum,and iron can reach 85.87%,73.41%,81.35%,and 59.08%,and the leaching rate of titanium is 10.71%.The iron and the aluminum are removed from the leachate to obtain iron-aluminum water purification agents,and the magnesium is removed from the leachate to obtain magnesium hydroxide.The leaching residue phase is dominated by perovskite,followed by magnesium silicate and tricalcium aluminate,and the titaniumrich material could be obtained from the leaching residue by desiliconization.

A Novel Sensing Imaging Equipment Under Extremely Dim Light for Blast Furnace Burden Surface:Starlight High-Temperature Industrial Endoscope

Blast furnace(BF)burden surface contains the most abundant,intuitive and credible smelting information and acquiring high-definition and high-brightness optical images of which is essential to realize precise material charging control,optimize gas flow distribution and improve ironmaking efficiency.It has been challengeable to obtain high-quality optical burden surface images under high-temperature,high-dust,and extremelydim(less than 0.001 Lux)environment.Based on a novel endoscopic sensing detection idea,a reverse telephoto structure starlight imaging system with large field of view and large aperture is designed.Combined with a water-air dual cooling intelligent self-maintenance protection device and the imaging system,a starlight high-temperature industrial endoscope is developed to obtain clear optical burden surface images stably under the harsh environment.Based on an endoscope imaging area model,a material flow trajectory model and a gas-dust coupling distribution model,an optimal installation position and posture configuration method for the endoscope is proposed,which maximizes the effective imaging area and ensures large-area,safe and stable imaging of the device in a confined space.Industrial experiments and applications indicate that the proposed method obtains clear and reliable large-area optical burden surface images and reveals new BF conditions,providing key data support for green iron smelting.

Analysis and Prospect of Waste Heat Utilization from Blast Furnace Slag Flushing

Estimating the residual heat of blast furnace slag flushing in China,classifying and introducing the current proposed methods of slag flushing waste heat utilization,and listing existing cases.In order to better save energy and water in the slag flushing process of blast furnaces,an ideal comprehensive cascade utilization system scheme for annual recovery of waste heat is proposed.Based on the measured waste heat data of a steel plant,design calculations are carried out to further analyze the economic feasibility of the new scheme and provide reference for its promotion and application.

Formation mechanism of the protective layer in a blast furnace hearth

A variety of techniques, such as chemical analysis, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, were applied to characterize the adhesion protective layer formed below the blast furnace taphole level when a certain amount of titanium-bearing burden was used. Samples of the protective layer were extracted to identify the chemical composition, phase assemblage, andistribution. Furthermore, the formation mechanism of the protective layer was determined after clarifying the source of each componenFinally, a technical strategy was proposed for achieving a stable protective layer in the hearth. The results show that the protective layemainly exists in a bilayer form in the sidewall, namely, a titanium-bearing layer and a graphite layer. Both the layers contain the slag phaswhose major crystalline phase is magnesium melilite（Ca2Mg Si2O7） and the main source of the slag phase is coke ash. It is clearly determinethat solid particles such as graphite, Ti（C,N） and Mg Al2O4play an important role in the formation of the protective layer, and the key factofor promoting the formation of a stable protective layer is reasonable control of the evolution behavior of coke.

Study on the early warning mechanism for the security of blast furnace hearths

The campaign life of blast furnace （BF） hearths has become the limiting factor for safety and high efficiency production of modern BFs. However, the early warning mechanism of hearth security has not been clear. In this article, based on heat transfer calculations, heat flux and erosion monitoring, the features of heat flux and erosion were analyzed and compared among different types of hearths. The primary detecting elements, mathematical models, evaluating standards, and warning methods were discussed. A novel early warning mechanism with the three-level quantificational standards was proposed for BF hearth security.

Formation mechanism of the graphite-rich protective layer in blast furnace hearths

A long campaign life of blast furnaces is heavily linked to the existence of a protective layer in their hearths. In this work, we conducted dissection studies and investigated damage in blast furnace hearths to estimate the formation mechanism of the protective layer. The results illustrate that a significant amount of graphite phase was trapped within the hearth protective layer. Furthermore, on the basis of the thermodynamic and kinetic calculations of the graphite precipitation process, a precipitation potential index related to the formation of the graphite-rich protective layer was proposed to characterize the formation ability of this layer. We determined that, under normal operating conditions, the precipitation of graphite phase ~om hot metal was thermodynamically possible. Among elements that exist in hot metal, C, Si, and P favor graphite precipitation, whereas Mn and Cr inhibit this process. Moreover, at the same hot-face temperature, an increase of carbon concentration in hot metal can shorten the precipitation time. Finally, the results suggest that measures such as reducing the hot-face tem- perature and increasing the degree of carbon saturation in hot metal are critically important to improve the precipitation potential index.

Numerical Simulation of Fluid Flow in Blast Furnace Hearth

The liquid flow in blast furnace hearth can result in the erosion of hearth. To prolong the campaign life of blast furnace, the effects of coke bed structure, coke porosity and deepness of taphole on liquid flow in hearth were studied by re model under different conditions. The results show that with the decrease of coke porosity, the peripheral flow is enhanced. Moreover, the existence of narrow coke free zone and the deepness reduction of taphole can increase the flowability on the bottom of hearth.

Numerical simulation for the lower shaft and the hearth bottom of blast furnace

One of the methods forming the shell is to appropriately design the coolingstaves and hearth without overheating during the campaign life of the furnace. The three-dimensionalsteady mathematical models for calculating the temperature distribution in the coolers andtwo-dimensional unsteady mathematical models with phase-change latent heat for calculating thetemperature distribution of the hearth bottom were established. The calculation results show thatthe formation of the slag-metal protection shell can be achieved by optimizing the design parametersof the coolers. Increasing the heat conductivity of the carbon brick can move the isothermal lineof 1150 deg C upward outside the hearth bottom.

Synthesis,Characterization of NaA Zeolite from Blast Furnace Slag(BFS)via Alkaline Fusion and Hydrothermal Treatment

A blast furnace slag zeolite(BFSZ)material was successfully synthesized from BFS by alkaline fusion and hydrothermal treatment.Via the analyses of XRD,FT-IR,FE-SEM,XRF,CEC and BET surface area measurement,when zeolite was synthesized at a crystallization temperature of 100℃with initial Si/Al ratio of 1:1,the main composition in the product is Na-A zeolite.Under the above conditions,the BFSZ was synthesized with CEC of 3.06 meq/g and maximum BET surface area of 37.55 m^(2)·g^(-1).Moreover,the incorporating of BFS-derived minor metals(such as Mg,Fe,and Ca)are found to be of little importance for the synthesis of BFSZ.Thus the obtained BFSZ material has a great adsorption performance for removing Mn^(2+),Cu^(2+),and NH_(4)^(+)ions diluted in water,owing to the higher CEC.

Minimax entropy-based co-training for fault diagnosis of blast furnace

Due to the problems of few fault samples and large data fluctuations in the blast furnace(BF)ironmaking process,some transfer learning-based fault diagnosis methods are proposed.The vast majority of such methods perform distribution adaptation by reducing the distance between data distributions and applying a classifier to generate pseudo-labels for self-training.However,since the training data is dominated by labeled source domain data,such classifiers tend to be weak classifiers in the target domain.In addition,the features generated after domain adaptation are likely to be at the decision boundary,resulting in a loss of classification performance.Hence,we propose a novel method called minimax entropy-based co-training(MMEC)that adversarially optimizes a transferable fault diagnosis model for the BF.The structure of MMEC includes a dual-view feature extractor,followed by two classifiers that compute the feature's cosine similarity to representative vector of each class.Knowledge transfer is achieved by alternately increasing and decreasing the entropy of unlabeled target samples with the classifier and the feature extractor,respectively.Transfer BF fault diagnosis experiments show that our method improves accuracy by about 5%over state-of-the-art methods.

Efficient Use of Steel Slag in Alkali-Activated Blast Furnace Slag Based Geopolymer

Energy shortage and the emission of greenhouse gases have become a global problem of urgent concern.Therefore,there is an urgent need to develop a low carbon building material.Geopolymers have become a hot topic due to their environmental sustainability and the feasibility of immobilizing industrial waste.In this paper,steel slag(SS)fines were investigated as auxiliary materials of blast furnace slag(BFS)based geopolymer.The hydration heat properties,flowability,compressive strength,sorptivity coefficient,X-ray diffraction(XRD),and scanning electron microscopy(SEM)of the geopolymer pastes were determined.The results showed that the incorporation of SS weakened the reactivity of the BFS-based geopolymer paste and improved the flow values of the paste.The compressive strength of the geopolymer with 20%SS content reached 117 MPa at 28 d.The geopolymer specimens with high compressive strength showed a low sorptivity coefficient.The microscopic results showed that the addition of the appropriate amount of SS reduced the cracks,improved the density of the geopolymer,and produced a geopolymer composite with excellent mechanical properties.

Investigation on the relationship between hearth wall erosion and deadman permeability for large blast furnaces

In this study, the relationship between hearth wall erosion and deadman permeability was investigated based on the change in the hearth bottom and hearth sidewall temperatures. Additionally, the operation practice for controlling hearth wall erosion in the large No. 1 blast furnace at Baosteel was also investigated. The reasons for the decrease in the permeability of deadman coke were analyzed, and measures for improving the permeability of deadman coke and controlling hearth wall temperature rising were described. The results show that a decrease in deadman coke permeability is the main reason for refractory temperature increase and hearth wall erosion. This indicates the importance of monitoring changes in hearth working conditions and taking appropriate measures to maintain sufficient permeability of the deadman and balance the hot metal flow and drainage of slag. At this rate, the decline in the hearth bottom temperature and fast rising of the hearth wall temperature can be restrained.

Mathematical Model of Hearth and Bottom Erosion in Blast Furnace

Furnace lining erosion is closely related to the operation stability and safety. The detection technology for hearth lining thickness of blast furnace was introduced.By using the data of thermocouples installed in the bottom of furnace hearth,a mathematical model of erosion was established; the real state of the hearth and bottom erosion was studied; the erosion condition was followed,serving for the furnace longevity.

Dripping and evolution behavior of primary slag bearing TiO2 through the coke packed bed in a blast-furnace hearth

To investigate the flow of primary slag bearing TiO2 in the cohesive zone of blast furnaces, experiments were carded out based on the laboratory-scale packed bed systems. It is concluded that the initial temperature of slag dripping increases with decreasing FeO content and increasing TiO2 content. The slag holdup decreases when the FeO content is in the range of 5wt%-10wt%, whereas it increases when the FeO content exceeds 10wt% . Meanwhile, the slag holdup decreases when the TiO2 content increases from 5wt% to 10wt% but increases when the TiO2 content exceeds 10wt%. Moreover, slag/coke interface analysis shows that the reaction between FeO and TiO2 occurs be- tween the slag and the coke. The slag/coke interface is divided into three layers： slag layer, iron-rich layer, and coke layer. TiO2 in the slag is reduced by carbon, and the generated Ti diffuses into iron.

Post-mortem Microstructural Study of Aluminous Refractory Brick Used in Channels of Blast Furnaces

Aluminous refractory materials with high alumina contents are widely used in the steel industry,and the higher the alumina content,the higher the working temperature.Properties such as high refractoriness and thermal shock resistance lead these refractory materials to be used as channel linings of blast furnaces,where they are exposed to the attack by slag,molten steel,working cycles and sudden temperature changes between 25℃(room temperature)and 1520℃(the temperature of molten pig iron).In this work,microstructural changes in post-mortem aluminous refractory bricks were investigated by apparent porosity,X-ray diffraction analysis(XRD),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),scanning electron microscopy,and X-ray dispersion energy spectrometry(SEM/EDS).The results showed an increase in the apparent porosity and the bulk density and the presence of the phases mullite,sillimanite,alumina,and quartz in the post-mortem brick.Calcium and magnesium were not detected in the microstructure of the post-mortem brick,indicating that slags did not corrode these refractory materials.Therefore,the microstructural changes that occurred in the post-mortem bricks must be due to thermal cycling.In the X-ray diffraction(XRD)test,mullite,sillimanite,quartz,andα-alumina phases were identified.These results indicate that the aluminous refractory was obtained from sillimanite.In infrared spectroscopy(FTIR)it was possible to identify the vibration bands referring to the Si-O and Al-O bonds.The increase in the porosity is a result of cracks caused by work cycles at high temperatures and the temperature gradient to which the refractory was subjected during use.Through the micrograph it was possible to identify the presence of acicular mullite.The absence of magnesium and calcium in the microanalysis results by energy dispersed X-ray spectrometry(EDS)indicates that there was no infiltration by slag or liquid iron.These results indicate that the microstructural changes that occurred in the post-mortem aluminous refractory were of a thermal nature.

Preparation and Properties of SiC Assembled Large Block for Blast Furnace Tuyeres

A SiC assembled large block for blast furnace tuyeres was prepared using silicon carbide particles(3-1 and 1-0.088 mm)and fine powder(<0.088 mm),silicon powder(<0.088 mm),industrial carbon black(N990),microsilica,ρ-Al_(2)O_(3) powder,etc.as raw materials.The developed block was compared with a silicon nitride bonded silicon carbide brick,a self-bonded silicon carbide brick and an imported self-bonded silicon carbide block to analyze and evaluate their service performance.The results show that:(1)in the 0-100 mm zone,the SiC large block mainly consists ofβ-SiC and nitrides such as O'-SiAlON,β-SiAlON,α-Si_(3)N_(4),and Si_(2)N_(2)O,the bulk density is 2.68-2.70 g·cm^(-3),the apparent porosity is 14%-15%,and the material structure is uniform;(2)in the 0-100 mm zone,β-SiC nano-whiskers intercalate with nitrides;with the depth increasing,the number of flocculentβ-SiC nano-whiskers increases,while the number of nitrides decreases;when the depth reaches 150 mm or more,the main bonding phases areβ-SiC and mullite;(3)compared with the reference products,the developed SiC large block has a good basic performance,and after alkali corrosion,the mass change rate is-0.1%,which is obviously superior to the imported self-bonded silicon carbide and the homemade silicon nitride bonded silicon carbide materials.