Basicity Basicity refer to how acid or how basic a slag is in relation to the basic refractory utilized in furnace and

ladle vessels. Basicity is also important to defined pig iron and slag quality inside furnace. The normal value in blast furnace is 1,18-1,24 and it have different value in sinter plant and steelmaking processes. Basicity controlled by: - Raw material Si contained in raw material is determine basicity in blast furnace. Usually limestone addition is use to control basicity. Basicity will increase when there are more SiO2 in raw material. - Hot metal temperature High hot metal temperature will increase basicity Basicity can affect: - Liquid permeability Liquid permeability which is means slag and hot metal fluidity is strongly related to slag basicity and [Si] contained in pig iron. When basicity raise, pig iron become more viscous and slag become less viscous.

Heat Load Heat load is the amount of heat received by the walls of blast furnace. This heat absorbed by cooling water. Heat load represent gas flow distribution inside blast furnace and can be a tools to control heat ammount inside blast furnace. Heat load controlled by: - Charging mode Gas flow distribution controlled by charging mode. Gas will flows more through coke pile, therefore, increasing last coke will also increase heat ammount through blast furnace wall. Increasing C3 will increase gas flows through center of blast furnace and decrease heat ammount through blast furnace wall. - O/C Coal is the main heat source of blast furnace. To decrease heat load, coal must be decrease, that means increase O/C. - Raceway Blast furnace wall absorb heat from tuyere flame. Raceway distance to wall can affect heal load in blast furnace. Normal length of raceway is 1,2-1,6 meter.

heat transfered to blast furnace wall

Figure. Effect of Raceway to Heat Load Hot Metal Temperature The hot metal temperature is an important indicator of the blast furnace internal state. In normal operation, hot metal temperature needs to be maintained between 1520-1540 oC. High temperature operation can damage heart refractory. Hot metal temperature controlled by: - O/C To raise hot metal temperature, the heat source have to be increase. Increasing PCI and coke can increase the heat source in blast furnace. When the charging coke ammount is changed, it need time to affect the hot metal temperature related to raw material travel time. - Steam injection Steam contained in hot blast can decrease hot metal temperature. H2O can absorb the energy from hot metal. There is also a endothermic reaction by H2O to form H2 and O2. - Blast temperature Increasing blast temperature can raise the hot metal temperature. Hot metal temperature can affect: - Basicity Hot metal-slag Si equilibrium depends on the hot metal temperature. In high temperature of hot metal, the SiO2 from slag diffuse to hot metal and become [Si] and slag basicity will decrease. Permeability Permeability is the resistance of gas flow through material burden insode blast furnace. Permeability can divide into top permeability which is 20% of total permeability, middle permeability which is 10% of total permeability, and lower permeability which is 70% of total permeability. Lower permeability mostly depends on softening zone. Permeability controlled by: - O/C Coke have a larger size than sinter. When O/C decreased, the permeability will also decrease.

- Steam injection H2 formed from steam can decrease the permeability. H2 have a small molecular size and can pass through small gap of material burden. H2 can reduct ferrous in material burden. - Charging mode To decrease permeability, C3 is usually used. When C3 increased, there will be more gas flow through the center of blast furnace and permeability will also decrease. Last coke can also be used to increase gas flow through near-wall material burden. - Raw material quality Raw material quality is important to maintain the blast furnace permeability. Good blast furnace permeability can be obtained by maintaining raw material mean size, high strength, and low moisture content. Permeability can affect: - Gas speed High permeability can resist gas speed through the blast furnace burden. When the gas speed decreased, it the longer time for gas containing CO and H2 do react with ferrous, for the result, CO and H2 will incease. - P When the gas resistance is high, P inside blast furnace will raise. It can be seen in stack pressure profile. Raceway Raceway formed by the tuyere gas flow. Raceway is an important variable for lower blast furnace condition. Raceway controlled by: - O2 injection The combustion of carbon in the lower part of blast furnace depends on the ammount of oxygen contained in hot blast. Higher oxygen concentration can increase the effectiveness of combustion and shorten the raceway length. - PCI PCI can decrease the effectiveness of combustion in raceway. Increasing PCI will decrease the raceway length. The excess coal from PCI will accumulate in raceway and decrease hot blast flow through raceway forming thick birdnest. This will give a bad condition of raceway.
bird nest

Figure. PCI Flow In Raceway

-Blast volume Tuyere gas speed depends on blast volume. Tuyere gas speed increase when blast volume is increase. Higher velocity of tuyere gas speed gives longer raceway inside blast furnace. Raceway can affects: - Softening zone Raceway is an important variable for softening zone. Softening zone shape depends on raceway length and height. - Deadman Deadman is a unburned coal pile. The coal was not burned because the oxygen (combustion agent) can not reach the pile. When the raceway length increase, unburned coal which is passed by oxygen will burn and the deadman will reduced. -Heatload When raceway distance to wall is decrease, heatload will increase. Softening Zone The cohesive zone in the blast furnace, where ferrous burden materials soften and melt, affects the blast furnace performance. The cohesive zone of the blast furnace acts as a gas distributor, which has a remarkable impact on the regularity of blast furnace operation and operating ratios such as productivity, hot metal quality, and reducing agent consumption. Softening zone controlled by: - O/C Softening zone is imaginary layer contain of coke and ferrous. It is very important to maintain softening zone condition by adjusting O/C. - Blast volume Blast volume give a great influence for softening zone shape. Increasing blsat furnace volume means increasing softening zone height. - Raceway Raceway length and height will affects the shape of softening zone. Softening zone can affects: - Fuel ratio Lowering the position of the softening zone will improve productivity and decrease the coke rate. Lower softening zone give a longer time for gas to reduce ferrous in the blast furnace burden. - Permeability Lower permeability have a major influence for blast furnace permeability. Lower permeability is highly depends on softening zone. Thicker coke layer in softening zone will decerase the lower permeability. Softening zone also affect upper and middle permeability. Higher softening zone give a small resistance for gas flowing through the burden material. - CO Higher softening zone shape will decrease CO because the higher softening zone give the longer time for CO to reduce the ferrous in the burden.

ferrous layer coke layer tuyere flame

deadman

Hot metal

Figure. Softening Zone in Blast Furnace Top Temperature Top temperature is an indicator for blast furnace condition related to heatload, permeability, gas efectivenes, and blast furnace trouble. Top temperature needs to maintaned to give longer lifetime of top furnace facility. Low permeability will increase gas speed through the burden material. Heat contained gas will increase the top temperature before it is absorbed by the burden material. Travel Time Travel time is main indicator for productivity. Travel time represent time needed for material from charging to the softening zone. Travel time controlled by: - Blast volume Travel time can be accelerated by increasing blast volume. - O2 injection Oxygen from tuyere will react with PCI and coke to reduce ferrous in blast furnace. Increasing O2 injection means accelerate the ferrous reduction. - nP nP is the pressure difference between the ammount of top pressure + burden material and bottom pressure. Accelerate travel time can be done by increasing pressure difference. - Liquid permeability Slag and hot metal dicharged through tap hole. The fluidity is the controlling variable for slag and hot metal discharging speed. Bad fluidity cause slow discharging speed, furthermore, bottom pressure will raise and travel time will slowing down.