Charcoal Behaviour by Its Injection into the Modern Blast Furnace

Nowadays the use of charcoal in metallurgy is intimately linked to small blast furnaces in Brazil. Due to the challenge for CO2 mitigation, interest for charcoal use as a renewable energy source is rising. In the scope of European efforts to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions in the steel industry in the post-Kyoto period, the use of charcoal in cokemaking and ironmaking has been investigated. This paper presents results of an experimental study on charcoal behaviour under the blast furnace simulating conditions performed at the Department of Ferrous Metallurgy, RWTH Aachen University and at the National Centre for Metallurgical Investigations, Madrid. Conditions in the raceway and in the furnace shaft were simulated using thermo-analytical, laboratory and pilot facilities. Charcoal samples were produced in two furnaces for pyrolysis from different wood types at various carbonisation conditions. Furthermore technological and ecological assessment of blast furnace process when injecting different types of charcoal was performed using a mathematical model. All the experiments and calculations were also performed with reference mineral coals for injection. Conversion efficiency of all the tested charcoals is better or comparable with coals. Change in coke rate, furnace productivity and further operation parameters when replacing pulverised coal with charcoal depends on charcoal ash content and composition.