METHOD OF OPERATING BLAST FURNACE

Abstract: A first object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a blast furnace which enables substantial improvement of gas permeability and liquid permeability for stable operation of the blast furnace, and a second object thereof is to provide a blast furnace which enables use of a low grade solid reducing agent to reduce a quantity of high quality coke used for operation of a blast furnace and furthermore enables injection of pulverized coal at a rate of 200 Kg/ton-pig or more. In the present invention, to achieve the objects described above, in operation of a blast furnace for manufacturing pig iron in which coke and ores are charged from the furnace top, a high strength block packed area is formed in a core section of the blast furnace.

Description: The present invention relates to a method of operating a blast furnace for producing pig iron, and more particularly to technology for enabling the use of low grade solid reducing agents such as charcoal, as well as injection of a large quantity of pulverized coal, in a blast furnace by forming a packed bed comprising high strength blocks in a so-called core of the blast furnace. Generally, it is very important to ensure gas permeability and liquid permeability in a blast furnace for producing pig iron during its operation into which coke (generic name for oven coke and formed coke) and ores (generic name for iron ore, sintered ore, lime stone, and the like) are loaded therein. When gas permeability in a blast furnace becomes lower, an increase in the pressure loss or non-uniformed gas flow may occur with defective descent of load (frequent occurrence of hanging and slip) generated. This in turn not only makes the operation unstable but also lowers the reaction efficiency in the entire furnace as well as the productivity of the blast furnace. Furthermore, when the liquid permeability becomes lower, a so-called slag overload is generated at the tuyere level, which causes not only nonuniformity in gas distribution in the furnace, but also the so-called tap hole deviation and rise of pressure in the furnace. This causes a non-uniform tap output rate from each tap hole, and this phenomenon also causes defective decent of load and causes damage to the operational stability of the furnace. In relation to the gas permeability and liquid permeability in a blast furnace, it has been recognized that the operational factors, such as gas permeability and liquid permeability, in a core section (comprising a lower section of the tuyere level and a so-called core coke layer existing under a zone where ores are softened and melted (Refer to Fig. 1)) are especially important. A function of the core section 7 is to control gas flow distribution in a furnace, and as a result stabilise descent of load. When injection of pulverized coal is executed, the core section 7 serves as a path for un-burnt materials pass from the tuyere up to the softening and melting zone. The inventor has investigated the gas permeability as well as the liquid permeability, and concluded that it is difficult to continue operation of the current blast furnace under good conditions without improving the current gas permeability and liquid permeability. The reasons are described below. To keep in good condition the heat source, reducing capacity, gas distribution (gas permeability), liquid permeability and dropping of metal and slag, relatively high quality coke for a blast furnace has been used. Apart from exhaustion of feed stock coal for producing the blast furnace coke, there is the problem that blast furnace coke itself has high porosity, or low compression strength or low strength after reaction due to its nature. Even coke for a blast furnace, which has a relatively higher quality than that of commercial coke, can be powdered due to various types of physical or chemical phenomena generated in the furnace. Consequently, there is no means for improving the gas permeability and liquid permeability among the functions of coke described above. For this reason, it is difficult to completely stabilize operations of a blast furnace only by using the blast furnace coke. So, the present inventor disclosed the technology for overcoming the problems as described above in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63206 /1978. The disclosed technology is "A method of operating a blast furnace for which coke is used, characterized in that 3 to 25 % of the total charged coal materials by weight is replaced with high strength block made of fine carbonaceous materials, and the fine materials are mixed with the coke for using in the blast furnace". In this technology, however, as fine high strength block was charged into the furnace in place of the ordinary coke for a blast furnace, the gas permeability was temporally improved, but the high strength block intruded into some areas other than the core section of the furnace. This made the state inside the furnace worse and the reaction efficiency in the entire furnace was lowered. Furthermore, the high strength block body descended to a so-called raceway section in front of the tuyere, which caused incomplete combustion of the coke. In addition, oxygen came up even to the upper side of the furnace, which caused the FeO-rich slag to drop to the raceway section, or a form of the raceway section to become unstable, which in turn made it difficult to stabilize operations of the blast furnace. Relating to the technology for preserving the gas permeability and the liquid permeability in good conditions as well as for enhancing the operational stability, there is the "Method for controlling a solid reducing bed in a furnace core during operations of a blast furnace" disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.65207 /1989. In this technology, in order to control the gas permeability and liquid permeability in the so-called coke layer (which is updated in association with proceeding of the blast furnace operation) the coke layer is charged into the core section of ore layer and the solid reducing agent is charged into the core section of a solid reducing agent layer. The core section is specified as the inside of the core section area in the furnace where the relation r t ≧ 0.03 R t is satisfied, wherein r t is a predetermined radius from the centre of the furnace at the furnace top and R t is the radius of the furnace top. The solid reducing agent to be charged into the core section is charged so that the agent charged into the specific area occupies 0.2 % or more by weight of the total weight of solid reducing agent charged into the entire core section". In this technology, however, high-quality coke with high hot/cold compression strength and adjusted granularity is always charged into and used in a central portion of the furnace. Consequently although it can be expected that the gas permeability and liquid permeability will be improved to some extent as compared with those in the conventional technology, the effect is practically the same as that in a case where only the blast furnace coke is used. For this reason, substantial improvement of the gas permeability and liquid permeability cannot be expected. It is suggested in this publication that silicon carbide bricks or graphite bricks or the like, each with low reactivity, may used in place of high-quality coke. However, even if any of the bricks described above is used, as the bricks are always charged into the furnace, it is predicted that the same problems as those relating to the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.63206/1978 may occur. Hence there are still some questions left as to whetherthe operation can fully be stabilized or not. EP-A-306026 describes a method for operating a blast furnace, in which a high strength block is formed in the core section of the blast furnace. The high strength block of EP-A-306026 has a residence time in the furnace of 7 to 14 days. On the other hand, injection of pulverized coal into a blast furnace, which has recently become popular, is effective as an alternative to the high quality reducing agent. However, this increases fine materials in the gas inside the furnace with not-burnt materials being deposited in the core section thereof and the gas distributing function is disturbed. This makes the gas permeability and the liquid permeability worse. Accordingly, stable operation is still uncertain, and it is said that an injection rate of the coal thereto is limited to up to 200 kg/ton - pig so long as the current type of blast furnace coke is used for commercial operation. For the reasons described above, recently it is desired to substantially improve the gas permeability and liquid permeability inside the core section of the furnace to stabilize the operation for injecting pulverized coal. Furthermore, it is desired that a larger quantity of a low grade solid reducing agent will be used as countermeasures against depletion of the high quality coal available as a feed stock. Needless to say, the gas permeability and liquid permeability during operation of a blast furnace should be improved much more than those in the current technological state. The present invention was made to solve the problems as described above. A first object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a blast furnace for stabilizing a state of the furnace by which the gas permeability and liquid permeability in the blast furnace can substantially be improved as compared to those provided by the current technology. A second object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a blast furnace for enabling use of a low grade solid reducing agent and furthermore injection of pulverized coal at a rate more than 200 kg/ ton - pig so that the rate of use of high quality coke in the blast furnace will substantially be reduced. The inventor investigated various functions of coke in a blast furnace. As a result, it was understood that because the content of volatile matter in the feed stock coal used for production of coke currently being used was high, the porosity was also high and the reaction area was rather excessive. It was also understood that, because of the reasons described above, the coal was easily converted to minute particles due to lowering of the strength. For this reason, the inventor made strenuous efforts to overcome the problems as described above based on the belief that, by supplying material with a main ingredient not affecting acquisition or melted iron component and having a low porosity, the material being a fine substance with high specific ratio as well as high compression strength and also which hardly reacts with any other material in the furnace, it is possible to obtain the gas permeability as well as liquid permeability substantially higher as compared to those provided by the current technology. Thus, the inventor made the present invention. According to the present invention, there is provided as per claim 1. The present invention therefore concerns a method of operating a blast furnace for producing pig iron by charging coke and ores into the furnace from the furnace top. The method is characterized in that a high strength block packed bed area is formed in a core section of the blast furnace before the blast furnace is ignited. In an embodiment the high strength block is prevented from being piled up in sections other than the core section thereof. The feature of preventing the high strength block from being piled up in sections other than the core section is based on a result of observations of the high strength block dropping to the tuyere as well as on measurement of the average pressure loss in the blast furnace. In another embodiment low grade solid reducing agent is used for coke, and in yet another embodiment a mixture of coke and ores is charged from a furnace top of the blast furnace. In a further embodiment, the pulverized coal is injected into the furnace from the tuyere, preferably such that the rate of injecting said pulverized coal is set to 200 Kg/ ton pig or more. The invention will now be illustrated with reference to the following drawings in which: Fig.1 is a view showing a high strength block packed area in the core section of a blast furnace when a method for operating a blast furnace according to the present invention is carried out: Fig.2 is a view showing an example in which a position for charging the high strength block into the furnace is fixed when the method for operating a blast furnace according to the present invention is carried out; Fig.3 is a view schematically showing a position where the high strength block according to the present invention is present in the core section of the blast furnace, and in the figure the sign a indicates an excess of existence of the high strength block therein, while the sign b indicates a shortage of the high strength block therein; and Fig.4 is a view showing a dropping rate of the high strength block according to the present invention to the tuyere level and fluctuations of wind pressure in the blast furnace. In the present invention, "a core section of a furnace" indicates, as described above, a portion comprising a lower section of the tuyere level in the blast furnace and a so-called core coke layer existing under a zone where ores are softened and melted (Referto Fig.1). Also the ''high strenath block " is defined as a material which is much stronger against powdering due to a reaction under a high temperature, wearing, and compression than that of commercial blast furnace coke. It is also a material which hardly reacts with pig iron and slag, and values for the physical properties are as shown in Table 1 below. Furthermore the ''low grade solid reducing agent" indicates charcoal or the like, and values for the physical properties are as shown in Table 2 below. In the present invention, the operation for producing pig iron by charging coke and ores from the furnace top is executed in the state where a high strength block packed area has been formed in the core section of the blast furnace, so that it is possible to prevent the core section of the blast furnace from being clogged with combustion ash, not-burnt materials, or dust or the like. This makes it possible to remarkably improve the gas permeability and liquid permeability in the blast furnace. When ordinary blast furnace coke is used for operation of a blast furnace, coke in the furnace core section is updated once for every week or every two weeks. To achieve the object of the present invention, it is required that the blast furnace coke can reside for a longer period of time in the furnace as well as that the coke is not pulverized. In the present invention, a high strength block having a strength after a reaction under a high temperature (CSR) of 70 % or more, preferably 90 % or more, and most preferably 95 % or more; and a tumbler index (which is a reference for prevention of wearing due to contact between solids) of 68 % or more, preferably 95 % or more; and a compression strength 2 times or more higher than that of the blast furnace coke is used. In that case, the high strength block can reside in the furnace core for 10 weeks or for up to 20 weeks. Herein the strength after a reaction under a high temperature (CSR) is defined as a value provided by the (hot static reaction + cold rotation testing) method (for a large size blast furnace) described in Steel Handbook II. Iron Manufacture. Steel Manufacture (Edited by Japan Iron Manufacture Association), 3rd edition, page 202, Table 423. The value is obtained by having the coke reacted for 120 minutes in CO 2 gas atmosphere under a temperature in a range of 1000 ± 10°C at a flow rate of 125 litres/min, then charging the coke according to the JIS drum testing method into a drum, rotating and pulverizing the coke in the drum, and measuring a content of D 15 150 . Also in the present invention, a high strength block packed area is formed before the blast furnace is ignited, so that the desired high strength block packed area can easily be formed at a core section of the blast furnace. When ore or coke is intermittently charged into a blast furnace, core coke is definitely added into a core section of the blast furnace in addition to the respective charging rate. Alternatively when coke is charged into a blast furnace, core coke is mixed in the coke, and the mixture is continuously or intermittently charged into a so-called doughnut section 11 adjacent to a ridge of the core section as shown in Fig. 2. These methods may be employed because it turns out as a result of a cold model experiment simulating a solid flow in a blast furnace that the coke charged into the doughnut section 11 flows along a ridge of the conical section of the furnace core and updates the furnace core coke. It should be noted that the rate of charging coke for one cycle of operation of a blast furnace in case of a blast furnace with the internal capacity of 2500 m 3 should be o.2 weight % or less, and preferably 0.06 % or less. Also in the present invention, the high strength block is prevented from being piled up in any section other than the furnace core section. The prevention of piling up of the high strength block in any section other than the core section is executed by monitoring the high strength block dropping to the tuyere and measuring the average pressure loss in the blast furnace. In this way unnecessary high strength block which causes damage to normal operation of the blast furnace is never piled up in any section other than the furnace core. Control over residing of the high strength block in the furnace core can easily be provided by visually monitoring the situation in the blast furnace from the tuyere as schematically shown in Fig. 3. An alternative method of monitoring the internal situation inside the blast furnace is to monitor a form of the furnace core making use of various types of sonde (such as a tuyere sonde, furnace top sonde, and inclined sonde). In this step, if the furnace core section has expanded (as shown in Fig. 3a) beyond the reference position for the core section (shown in Fig 3c), the charging rate can be reduced or the frequency of the charging operations described above can be reduced. If the furnace core section has shrunk from the reference position (as shown in Fig. 3b), the charging rate can be increased or the frequency of charging coke can be increased. The wind pressure in the blast furnace is measured, as shown in Fig. 4, by checking fluctuations of the wind pressure according to the size of the furnace core section. It should be noted that, as clearly shown in Fig. 4, there is a time delay while a high strength block dropping to the tuyere, or while the wind pressure is fluctuating. Also in the present invention, the low grade solid reducing agent is used for coke, so that a quantity of relatively high quality coke used for operating a blast furnace can be reduced, or a blast furnace can be reduced even if the relatively high quantity coke is not available. The reason is that, when high strength block is used and a furnace core section is formed, the gas distributing function is stabilized and coke is expected only as a heat source with a reducing capability. Furthermore in the present invention, coke and ores are mixed with each other and the mixture is charged from a furnace top of a blast furnace, and the pressure loss in the blast furnace can be reduced by around 10 as compared to a case where coke and ores are charged independently into a layered form. In the conventional type of blast furnace operation, in which coke and ores are mixed and charged into a blast furnace, a substantially large work load is required for operations to form a so-called softening and melting zone under stable conditions, to stabilize gas distribution in the radial direction in the blast furnace, and to provide controls over distribution of load materials from the furnace top, granularity of coke and ores, and blending of ores. It is difficult to stabilize such operations of the blast furnace for a long period of time in this case. However, in the case in which a furnace core section according to the present invention is formed, the gas permeability and liquid permeability are improved and the gas distributing function as well as the central flow can be ensured. This enables stable operations of the blast furnace without causing any trouble. In the best mode of carrying out the present invention, pulverized coal is blown into a blast furnace from the tuyere and the rate of blowing the pulverized coal is set to 200 Kg/ton-pig or more so that a required quantity, of high quality coke can substantially be reduced. When the conventional blast furnace coke is used, if the blowing rate is set to 200 Kg/ton-pig, the wind pressure sharply increases; this phenomenon never occurs in the present invention. It is required that the high strength block has a high hot strength with little compression and wearing and a low reactivity with melted iron or slag. It is especially desirable that the reactivity with FeO-rich blast furnace dropping zone slag or hearth basin slag is low. For this reason, the high strength block is a carbonaceous material such as heat-resistant anthracite or graphite, and it is preferable to manufacture and use particles thereof having a given porosity, specific gravity, and compression strength with a uniform size by using a heat-resistant binder. However, the high strength block is not limited to those described above, and carbon bricks or electrodes having a required quality and granularity or silicon carbide may be used. Table 1 shows an example of physical property values and analysis values of the high strength block according to the present invention as compared to the values of blast furnace coke usually used for operation of a blast furnace. This table shows that the porosity is lower and both the specific gravity and compression strength are very high as compared to the values of blast furnace coke in all cases. No.1 and No.2 in Table 1 show examples of carbon bricks while No.3 and No.4 in the table show examples in which a binder is added to carbonaceous powder and the mixture is newly sintered. No.3 shows a case where a carbon content is lower as compared to those in other types of high strength block so that SiC is added to generate the residing capability and the mixture is sintered. No.4 shows a case where the compression strength is slightly lowered. As shown in this table, all types of high strength block according to the present invention are fine and have a high strength, and change little while the block descends from the furnace top to the tuyere, so that it can maintain the original form. It should be noted that the high strength block has preferably; a spherical form; a cylindrical form as close as possible to a spherical form; a cubic form; or a rectangular parallelepiped form as close as possible to a cubic form. The size is preferably in a range from 30 to around 150 mm. As a result, it has become possible that a large quantity of fuel (heavy oil, gas, or pulverized coal) or flux powder or the like can be blown into a blast furnace because the high strength block resides in the blast furnace for a long period of time. Implementation of the present invention using a test blast furnace having a tapping capacity of 10 tons/day is described below. The test blast furnace 1 had the specifications as shown in Table 3, and parameter values for the load materials and winding conditions were also as shown in the table. The parameter values are common to all embodiments and controls. In this experiment, a packed area was formed with the high strength block 6 shown in Table 1 at a core section of the blast furnace 1 above stably running under the operation conditions as shown in Table 3, and comparison of operational results was carried out. During each operation, existence of a packed area in the furnace core section 7 and its normality were determined by monitoring the high strength block 6 descending to the tuyere 8 and checking fluctuations of wind pressure in the blast furnace. In each embodiment, the period of operation was 14 days, 'and in each case the high strength block 6 was discharged when the operation for 14 days was finished after all residual materials in the furnace were removed and the furnace was cooled down. Table 4 and Table 5 show contents of the embodiments above and results of operation in each embodiment. In these tables the operational stability of the blast furnace is assessed in three categories of slip frequency, gas permeability, and liquid permeability. Also in Table 4 and Table 5, the signs such as No. 1 in the "high strength block" indicate types of high strength block shown in Table 1, and "None" in the column of control indicates that no control is used. Furthermore the phase of "before ignition'' indicates that the furnace core section is formed with the high strength block before the furnace was ignited, and the present invention can fully be carried out by additionally charging the coke 3 times for 14 davs at a rate of 20 Ka/charge after the blast furnace is ignited. It is clearly understood from Table 4 and Table 5 that the gas permeability and liquid permeability in controls, in which a furnace core section was formed with commercial coke like in the conventional technology, are lower than those in the cases where the present invention was applied. Thus, it is clear that the factors can be improved by applying the blast furnace operation method according to the present invention. Herein the gas permeability is obtained by calculating Δ P (pressure loss) / L (Effective height) in the entire blast furnace. The liquid permeability indicates a deviation in the tapping rate in each operational cycle when tapping is executed 6 times a day. When this value is large, it indicates that the liquid permeability in the hearth is low. It is clear that the stability of blast furnace operation will not be lost even if charcoal is used as a low grade solid reducing agent in place of the coke generally used in a blast furnace or if pulverized coal is blown into a blast furnace at a rate of 200 Kg/t-pig or more. Furthermore it is clear that the same effect can be obtained also by charging a mixture of coke and ores. Commercial coke High strength block No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 Total porosity (%) 40 ∼ 50 18 21.2 19 20 Compression strength (Kg/cm 2 ) 100 480 423 380 230 Fixed carbon (%) 94 ∼ 85.5 96.5 93.9 78.0 90.0 Apparent specific gravity (t/m 3 ) 0.6 1.6 1.6 1.84 1.6 Emulsive component (%) 0.4 ∼ 0.7 0.7 0.5 1.0 0.8 Ash (%) 5.6 ∼ 13.8 2.7 5.6 21.0 9.2 Post-reaction strength index (CSR) 50 ∼ 65 >95 > 94 > 70 > 90 Tumbler index 85 ∼ 87 > 95 > 92 > 90 > 88 Post-reaction strength index (CSR) Tumbler index Compression strength (Kg/ cm 2 ) Commercial blastfurnace coke 50 ∼ 65 85 ∼ 87 100 Low grade solid reducing agent ( such as charcoal) < 50 < 80 < 100 Unobstructed capacity 4 m 3 Number of tuyeres 3 Number of tap holes 1 Furnace top charging device Bell-less system Tapping rate 10t/d Air blowing rate 600 N m 3 /hr Air blowing temperature 850 °C Ore ratio 1600 Kg/t Sinter ratio 80 % With the present invention, the gas permeability and liquid permeability in a blast furnace are substantially improved, and this state can be maintained lor a long period of time. Also, a blast furnace can be operated under stable conditions, and a so-called mixed charging of load materials into a blast furnace is possible. Furthermore by injecting pulverized coal at a rate of 200 Kg/ton-pig or more or by using a large quantity of low grade solid reducing agent In a blast furnace, the quantity of the ordinary so-called blast furnace coke required for operation of the blast furnace can be reduced.

Claims: A method of operating a blast furnace for manufacturing pig iron in which coke and ores are charged therein from a furnace top, which method comprises: (i) pre-packing a core section of the furnace with a plurality of high strength carbonaceous blocks to form a conically-shaped core prior to ignition of said furnace, said blocks having a strength after reaction (CSR) of at least 70%, a tumbler index value of at least 88% and a compression strength which is at least twice the compression strength of blast furnace coke; (ii) charging the coke and ores into said furnace; (iii) igniting the furnace; (iv) monitoring the pressure in the furnace and the shape of the core during operation; and (v) charging additional blocks into the furnace in dependence on the monitored pressure and shape. The method of claim 1, wherein a low grade solid reducing agent is used for coke. The method according to any preceding claim, wherein the coke and ores are mixed and the mixture is charged from the furnace top. The method according to any preceding claim, wherein pulverised coal is injected from a tuyere. The method according to claim 4, wherein the blowing rate of the pulverized coal is set to 200 Kg/ton-pig or more.

Inventors: FUJIMORI HIROTOSHI, KAWAI TAKANARI, NAKAJIMA YOSHIYUKI, SAKURAI SYOUJI, FUJIMORI, HIROTOSHI, KAWAI, TAKANARI, NAKAJIMA, YOSHIYUKI, SAKURAI, SYOUJI, FUJIMORI, HIROTOSHI KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION, KAWAI, TAKANARI KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION, NAKAJIMA, YOSHIYUKI KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION
Applicants: KAWASAKI STEEL CO, SAKURAI SYOUJI, KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION, SAKURAI, SYOUJI
Application year: 1995
Main classification: C21B5
IPC codes: C21B7, C21B5