Combustion Enhancement of Pulverized Coal with Targeted Oxygen-Enrichment in an Ironmaking Blast Furnace

In this study, a targeted oxygen-enrichment technology was proposed to enhance coal combustion in an ironmaking blast furnace. The coal flow and combustion characteristics under targeted oxygen-enrichment were investigated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The results showed that oxygen utilization and coal burnout were significantly increased under targeted oxygen-enrichment. The coal burnout at 24% O-2 concentration was 86.29%, which was the maximum and indicated an increase of 13.13%. However, the cooling effect of room-temperature oxygen had some adverse effects on coal combustion. Given this, the effect of coal particle temperature on coal combustion was investigated based on targeted oxygen-enrichment. The coal combustion process was further enhanced. The coal burnout at a 600 K particle temperature and 25% oxygen concentration was 91.12% and had an increase of 17.96%, which was the maximum.

Automated summary

The study proposed a targeted oxygen-enrichment technology to enhance coal combustion in an ironmaking blast furnace. Oxygen utilization and coal burnout were significantly increased under targeted oxygen-enrichment. However, the cooling effect of room-temperature oxygen had adverse effects on coal combustion. The study also found that the temperature of coal particles has a noticeable impact on coal combustion.