1. AUGMENTING USE OF NON-COKING COAL IN STEEL INDUSTRY:
A C R Das
Industrial Adviser
Ministry of Steel
Government of India
New Delhi
4th Coal Summit
19-20th November
Hotel The Ashok, New Delhi

2. An Overview of Indian Iron & Steel Industry
World Production of Crude Steel(2011): MT
Chinese production (46%) : MT
India’s Crude Steel Production( 2011) : 72 MT
India is the 4th Largest Producer in the world.
India is the largest producer of Sponge Iron.
Indian Steel Production 8-10%(Decadal)
India to reach to 2nd position by end of 12th Five Yr. Plan
Present & Projected Steel Capacity in India: MT MT MT
MT by 2050

3. STRUCTURE OF INDIAN STEEL INDUSTRY
There are 11 Integrated Steel Plants (ISP)
ISPs adopt different process routes namely, BF-BOF, BF-BOF/THF, BF/Corex-BOF, DRI/HBI-EAF and DRI/BF-EAF plants
There are a large number of Mini Steel Plants(MSPs) comprising of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)/ Energy Optimising Furnace (EOF) and Electric Induction Furnace (EIF) units.
MSPs includes:
Stand-alone plants dependent on purchased inputs (steel scrap and sponge iron) and
composite plants having captive sponge iron making facilities.

4. TECHNOLOGY MIX OF IRON & STEEL MAKING
Process Route
World
India
Oxygen Route (%) 70
BF/COREX/BOF/THF/EOF: 40
Electric Route (%) 30
EAF/DRI-EAF :
EIF/DRI-EAF :
NB: As per future projections, proportion of steel production through BF-BOF route in expected to increase in years to come

5. Techno-Economic Efficiency Parameters
Item
Global Benchmark
Indian Iron & Steel sector
BF Productivity (t / day / m3 of working volume
/2.8
Coke rate (Kg / t HM)
PCI (kg / t HM)
50-150
Energy Consumption (G cal / TCS
6-6.5
CO2 emission (t / TCS)
1.7 – 1.9
2.8 – 3.0

6. INDIAN STEEL INDUSTRY: CHALLENGES
Poor techno-economic performance parameters of Indian steel industry reflects that it is trailing behind the global standards
Main problems relate to:
technological obsolescence in principle process sand
Lack of timely technological intervention and R&D
Lack of dedicated technologies for harnessing waste heat/ energy
Inferior quality of Raw Materials/ Inputs:
High Alumina and high Alumina/Silica Ratio in Iron Ore
High ash in Coking/ Non-Coking Coal

7. Overview of Blast Furnace(BF) Iron making
BF is the oldest and most established and also most efficient process of iron making
Over 90% of total iron produced in the world comes from BF process
Blast Furnace essentially requires coke made from cooking coal.
Coke is made in coke oven (by-product/heat recovery)
Coke has three important functions in Blast Furnace:
Thermal (source of heat)
Chemical (reductant)
Physical (Supporting Burden & Imparting Bed Permeability)
Coke must satisfy some basic minimum quality parameters viz., composition (high FC & low ash), proper size range, high strength (Cold & Hot), good reactivity etc. to ensure efficient BF operation with maximum productivity & minimum coke rate/energy consumption.

8. Problems and issues with Indian Coking Coal
BF Coke-making requires good quality of cooking coal usually prime cooking coal.
Prime Coking-Coal is relatively scarce and costly and its availability is depleting sharply
Prime Coking coal reserves limited and constitute only about 14 % of the total coal reserves of 252 Billion Tonnes in India
The ash content in ROM Coking is very high (30-45%) and washing/ beneficiation is difficult because of techno-economic reasons
Poor coke and iron ore quality are primarily responsible for poor performance of Indian BFs and higher energy consumption.

9. Alternative Iron Making Technologies:
Development of Alternative technlogies/ Practices for substitution of Coking-Coal
Pulverised Coal Injection (PCI)/ Coal Dust Injection (CDI) to partially substitute Coking-Coal (Coke) in Blast Furnace by Non-Coking Coal/ other reductants.
Alternative Iron Making Technologies:
Direct Reduction of Iron Ore to produce sponge iron/ DRI using non-coking coal/ natural gas.
Smelting Reduction (SR) of Iron Ore using non-coking coal.

10. Effect of PCI/CDI in BFs
CDI/PCI has picked up over the years across the world to minimise coking coal use in BFs in view of its scarcity and cost
1 ton of coal dust/ pulverised coal replaces about 1 ton of coke resulting in saving of approx 1.4 ton of coking coal and equivalent coke making capacity thereby avoiding emission of pollutants/ GHGs
PCI also helps in smooth operation of Blast Furnace with improvement in productivity
PCI in Indian BFs is low, varying in the range of kg/thm as compared to 250 kg/thm (max) in the world.

11. Techno-Economic Parameters in Europe
Country
Belgium
France
Finland
Germany
Netherland
Works
AM Gent AM
Dunkerque
Ruukki Raahe
HKM
TKS
Corus
Coke Rate
Kg/t/HM
261.9
266.1
319.0
289.0
262.6
289.5
245.6
271.1
Nut Coke
66.5
47.8
39.0
66.8
70.9
53.5
35.3
32.1
Total Coke
328.4
313.9
358.0
355.8
333.5
343.0
280.9
303.2
Coal Injection
169.7
171.5 -
165.4
159.8
235.1
214.9
Oil Injection
100.5
23.5
0.9
Natural Gas
84.9
Oxygen in blast %
26.2
24.3
27.2
28.1
26.5
26.4
36.2
32.3
Blast Furnace
Productivity
t/m3 (WV) x 24 hr
2.18
2.24
3.44
2.57
2.80
2.49
3.18
2.64

12. Enablers for High PCI rate in BFs
Injection of High PCI in BFs is dependant on several factors:
Good Coke quality (Coke M10 value 7 (max), M40 value 81-88%, CSR 66% (min)
Slag Rate (max): 300 kg/thm (preferably 280 Kg/thm)
Hot Blast Temperature: 1150 C (min)
Oxygen enrichment: 3-5% or more
PCI coal essentially requires appropriate quality of non-coking coal characterized by low Ash: 12%, VM: 12-15%, CSN: (-) 3%, HGI: (+) 75%, Ash Fusion Temp: IDT- 1300°C and Final Flow Temp: 1500°C
Such PCI coal is not readily available in India and is being imported

13. ALTERNATIVE IRON MAKING
Direct Reduction of Iron Ore
Process of directly reducing iron ore (lumps/ Pellets) in solid form itself
Product known as Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) or Sponge Iron
Two main Processes:
Non-Coking Coal based Rotary Kilns
Natural Gas Based Shaft Furnaces
Syn-Gas Based Shaft Furnaces
Modular Sizes of Rotary Kilns: low (100 – 500 TPD)
Modular Size of Gas Based Plants: high (upto 2 MTPA)

14. DRI PRODUCTION IN INDIA/WORLD
Country
Production, MT
2008
2009
2010
India
21.1
22.03
23.81
Venezuela
6.87
5.6
5.80
Mexico
6.01
4.15
5.22
Iran
7.46
8.2
9.10
Saudi Arabia
4.97
5.03
5.96
Russia
4.56
4.67
4.60
World 66 65 71
India is the largest DRI producer (75% Coal Based & 25% gas based)

15. Midrex Process Flow Sheet – DRI/HBI Production

16. Syn-Gas Based Midrex DRI/HBI Production

17. Alternate Iron Making – Smelting Reduction
Process of converting Iron Ore into Hot Metal/ Pig Iron using non-coking coal directly bypassing conversion of coal into coke
Also known as Direct Smelting
Several Processes have been developed, some of which are commercially available and others are in the process of development
Commonly known SR Processes are:
Corex
Finex
ITmk3
HISmelt
HIsarna
FastMelt
Technored

19. A schematic diagram of COREX process

21. FINEX Process

23. Production of Iron nuggets
Ore + coal composite pellets: Reduction & melting at 1500C in RHF
It produces almost low sulphur pure iron nuggets (& slag globules)
Technology: Kobe Steel, Japan
0.50 MT: Minnesota, USA
0.50 MT: ASP, Durgapur (Proposed): Rs 1500 Crores

24. ITmk3 Process

27. Key features of HIsarna Smelter Technology of ULCOS
ULCOS: Ultra-low Carbon di-oxide Steeelmaking: European consortium of 48 companies: Cooperative R&D Programme: Develop processes for reducing CO2 emission of today’s best routes by at least 50%:
HIsarna for ironmaking (HIsarna for the process ("HI" from HIsmelt and "sarna" from Isarna, a celtic word for iron).
BF Top gas recycling, etc.
HIsarna is a single-step technology based on bath-smelting of iron ore to produce liquid iron like HM of BF.
The main purpose is to improve energy efficiency by at least 20%.

28. Hisarna Ironmaking Technology
CO2 gas
Coal
Iron Ore Fines
Melting cyclone
Oxygen
Smelting Converter
Hot Metal

29. Discussions & Conclusions
BF has been and will continue to be the workhorse for Hot Metal production.
BF process has undergone substantial improvements in terms of size, capacity, efficiency, use of coke, waste heat recovery etc.
Coke-making has also undergone several changes to produce good quality coke from inferior coking coal/ non-coking coal.
From 100% use of coke in the past, modern BFs use only 50-60% coke, balance being non-coking coal (PCI/CDI).
Indian BFs need to bring in Technological upgradations to introduce/ improve PCI/ CDI rate.
Good quality coke/coal is key to BF operation and also to reduce coke rate in BF. Good quality NCC is also necessary to enhance PCI/CDI rate

30. Discussions & Conclusions (Contd.)
Overall DRI production (and particularly natural gas based DRI production in middle east countries) increasing
DR & SR process will continue to play complementary/ supplementary role in overall iron/steel production.
Coal /Coke consumption cannot be reduced below a theoretical minimum. Worldwide R&D in progress for development of path breaking processes to further reduce use of fossil fuel in BF and /or substitute use of coal by non-fossil fuel for addressing climate change issues.

31. “THANK YOU”