Ironmaking in the Blast Furnace Plant Bell Less Top Sinter Coke Gas Cleaning Hot Blast Stoves Stock House Gasholder Scrubber Stockhouse: screening and weighing of burden materials Bell less top: proper distribution of burden materials in the furnace Gas cleaning: cleaning of bf-topgas in two steps: 1. dry dust catcher for coarse particles 2. Wet scrubber for final cleaning Gasholder: big vessel to buffer flow and pressure fluctuations Hot blast stoves: regenerative heat exchanger for heating of hot blast Hot Metal: liquid hot iron Slag: liquid byproducts (CaO, SiO2, Al2O3, MgO) Blower: generates compressed air Enrichment Gas Slag, Hot Metal Combustion Air Blower Combustion Gas

Blast Furnace Top Gas Mains Top Bins Throat Armour Above Burden Probe Temperature Probe Refractory Lining Sub Burden Probe Burden probes: temperature and gas probes to control the distribution of the burden materials Throat armour: high resistant metal plates to protect the refractories from dropping burden materials Bustle main: ring pipe for hot blast Tuyeres: water cooled nozzles for hot blast injection Hearth refractories: temperature resistant materials (mainly carbon) Bustle Main Tuyeres Hearth Refractories

Hot Blast Stove Combustion Chamber Chequers Chequers: refractory bricks to store thermal energy

Installation of Chequers

Cast House Cast house and runner system: refractory lined runners to separate liquid iron and slag

Iron Production COKE OVEN PLANT SINTER PLANT BLAST FURNACE Coking Coal and iron ore are the basic raw materials for the production of pig iron, which will further be refined to steel in the steel works. In the coke oven plant coal is processed to coke. Coke is essential in the lower part of the blast furnace to maintain the gas permeability. Due to the high weight load of the burden column simple coal would break into small particles and block the gas stream. As a byproduct of the coking process coke oven gas mainly consisting of hydrogen and methane is generated, which is used mainly for generation of electric power in a thermal power plant. Most of the iron ores and additves are traded as fines and need some pretreatment before being processed in the blast furnace. This preprocess is called sintering, where, by means of heat (approx. 1300°C) the fines are somehow baked to particles of between 20 and 50 mm mean diameter. These particles, called sinter, are also permeable for the reduction gases. In the blast furnace the reduction of the iron ores (Fe2O3) to metallic iron and the melting of the iron and by products take place. Both, reduction and melting need high temperature, which is generated by combustion of coke using hot blast, blown in via tuyeres located around the furnace. The reduction gas leaving the furnace is called top gas and after a cleaning process used to preheat the air in the hot blast stoves. Hot metal and slag are further tapped from the hearth of the blast furnace, by drilling a so called tap hole, which will be closed after aproximately one to one and a half hours again. The separation of hot metal and slag takes place in a so called pool runner outside the furnace, using the density difference. Iron Production COKE OVEN PLANT SINTER PLANT BLAST FURNACE

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