METALS AND MATERIALS, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1996), pp.

1-7

Coke Properties at Tuyere Level in Blast Furnace

with Pulverized Coal Injection

Jin Kyung CHUNG, Jeong Whan HAN* and Jeong Ho LEE

Kwangyang Iron & Steelmaking Research Team, Technical Research Laboratories

POSCO, 699 Kumho-dong, Kwangyang, Cheonam 544-090, Korea
*Department of Materials Engineering, Kyonggi University, Suwon 440-270, Korea

Coke in the blast furnace experiences great changes in their properties during the blast furnace operation.
Pulverized Coal Injection (PCI) into the blast furnace through tuyeres together with oxygen enrichment af-
fect coke properties and blast furnace operation. Using coke sampler at tuyere level, coke samples were col-
lected and analysed at various coal injection rates in the both conventional and co-axial oxygen enrichment.
With the help of information obtained from coke sampling experiments, gas permeability resistance index at
lower part of blast furnace (LK) and mean size variation of coke were predicted and matched well with the
measurements.

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N and the gas permeability resistance index (LK) at lower

The blast furnace still covers major portions of hot me-
tal production and there is a world wide tendency to in-
ject pulv.erized coal into blast fumace tuyere. Recently,
the prime concern of the ironmakers has become a max-
imization of Pulverized Coal Injection Ratio (PCR)
while maintaining the blast furnace in good operating
condition [1].
In order to figure out what happens in the blast fur-
nace with high PCR, various experiments are being car-
fled out.
The properties of coke such as mean size (MS), coke
strength after reaction (CSR) and degradation index (DI)
have been known to be changed at lower part of blast
furnace with coal injection.
The state of coke at tuyere level in the blast furnace
has not yet been quantitatively understood [2]. The role
of the raceway as combustion space is manifold; pro-
ducer of reducing gas, distributor of gas and heat source.
Since the raceway is very important for stable operation
of a blast furnace, the role of coke in the neighborhood
of raceway, as supporting structure, has become more
and more important [3]. This paper focuses on the ef-
fects of coal injection rate and methods of oxygen en-
richment on the shape of the raceway and its vicinity in
the blast furnace. Coke mean diameter at tuyere level
part of blast furnace are predictect based upon the test
results.
2. E X P E R I M E N T A L
For a better coal combustion efficiency in blast fur-
nace, oxygen enrichment is required when coal is in-
jected. As shown in Fig. 1, there are two methods of ox-
ygen enrichment with different coal/oxygen lance con-
figurations. One is oxygen enrichment in blast, the other
is oxygen enrichment with co-axial lance. In the center
of the inner pipe of each lances, coal is being injected.
Co-axial lance is known to be more effective on the
coal combustion than the conventional one, because cold
air, which is injected through the outer pipe of the con-
ventional lance, prevents turbulent mixing of pure ox-
ygen and coal [4]. In order to investigate the raceway
behaviors with these different oxygen enrichments and
PCRs, a movable tuyere coke sampler by Compair-Hol-
man [1] was introduced into the blast furnaces at Kwan-
gyang Works, all four having a hearth diameter of 13.2
m and inner volume of 3800 m ~. Since 1991, 80-130
Kg/t-p PCR applied to No. 1~3 BF and No. 4 BF had
150 Kg/t-p PCR. Total 10 times of coke samplings have
been carried out along with the change of the operation
conditions such as PCR, oxygen enrichment, lance con-
2 Jin Kyung CHUNG, Jeong [~Ttan HAN and Jeong Ho LEE

fined as follows; sampled coke of 100 g sized in the

range of 15.9 and 24.7 mm was reacted with carbon
dioxide at t 10ff'C for I hr. The reacted coke is mechan-
ically rotated at a speed of 20 rpm for 30 min in I-type
drum tester. Then, weight percentage of coke size which
is over 10 mm was measured as the CSR'. Dr of coke
was also re-determined by the weight of coke over 10
mm after rotating at speed of 20 rpm for 30 min in l-
type drum tester.

3. R E S U L T S AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Characteristics of coke properties at tuyere level

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram showing oxygen enrichment.
figuration, tuyere diameter and burden distribution etc.
as shown in Table 1.
During furnace stoppage, a hollow pipe with 150
mm~ was pushed through a tuyere and advanced up to
one third of the hearth radius. The pipe was cut open
and coke was divided at every 200 mm for screen
analysis. Because coke sampled at the tuyere level of the
blast furnace is much less than 10 Kg, minimum value
for CSR or DI determination specified in JIS at each sec-
tion, coke strength at tuyere level was modified and rede-
As reported before [5], four distincitive parts could be
identified; bosh, raceway, bird's nest and deadman as
shown in Fig. 2(a). The bosh coke which is located a-
bove the raceway generally consists of large angular
coke lumps with a dark sooty surface resulting from car-
bon solutioning somewhere above the raceway in the fur-
nace.
The birds nest is the most compact zone and contains
coke, slag and iron. The fine coke tends to fill the voids
of the larger coke lumps and, if present in excess, it
results in poor drainage of liquid slag and iron. The size
of both raceway and bird's nest vary. with PCR, oxygen
enrichment method and other conditions, as illustrated in
Fig. 2(b).
It is interesting to note that the coke size distribution
at tuyere !evel shows different pattern with different
PCRs and oxygen enrichment. As shown in Fig. 3, the

Table 1, Coke sampling dates and operating conditions

No. of sample No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10
Date 91/8/2 91/9/10 93/6/2 93/6/30 94/2/4 94/3/8 94/4/27 94/5/4 95/2/6 95/3/20
Blast Funace 2BF 3BF 3BF 3BF 4BF 2BF 4BF 1BF 4BF 4BF
Dia.(mm) 140 140 140 150 150 140 150 14Cl 15(1 150
canyon- conven- conven- co- co- conven- co- conven- co- co-
Lance type tional tional tional axial axial tional axial tional axial axial
PCR(Kg/t-p) 86 97 129.9 124 132.1 108 144 86.2 142 150
PD(ton/day) 8360 8588 8684 8788 8632 8767 8816 8311 8833 8800
VB(Nm3/min) 6190 6255 5789 5847 6095 6243 5973 6196 6008 5975
Oxen(Nm~/qar) 7120 4800 9600 10000 8000 7248 12000 4570 13560 14900
TB,('C) 1170 t197 1224 1227 1179 1167 1185 1166 1197 1196
HMT(~ 1510 1504 1514 1515 1509 1523 1518 1521 1521 1520
MS(mm) 49.1 50.2 49.8 49.8 49.9 52 51.3 48.9 50.4 49.8
DI(%) 87.3 87.5 87.5 87.4 87.3 87.4 87.4 86.7 87.7 87.6
CSR(%) 66.9 67.1 67.1 65.1 67.3 63.8 67.4 68.2 67.0 63.9
 Coke Properties at Tuyere Level in Blast Furnace with Pulverized Coal hzjection 3

Fig. 3. Cumulative coke size distribution at tuyere level

(a) PCR: 86 Kg/t-p and (b) PCR: 144 Kg/t-p.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram showing coke sampling and

state of coke at tuyere level with various PCRs, lance
configurations and oxygen enrichment.

coke size over 25 mm in bosh, raceway and birds nest

were larger at 86 Kg/t-p PCR than at 144 Kg/t-p.
The weight fraction of liquid (metal + slag) over coke
varies along the radius as shown in Fig, 4. With the con-
ventional lance, the weight fraction of metal and slag in
mixture increased with the increase of PCR from 86 to
130 Kg/t-p. With co-axial lance, however, the weight
fraction of metal and slag returned to the level of 86 Kg/
t-p even at 132 Kg/t-p. When PCR was again increased
to 144 Kg/t-p, the weight fraction increased as well. Fig. 4 Weight fraction of (metal-slag) over coke along
The fraction of fines, say - 3 ram, may be regarded the radius of blast furnace at tuyere level.
as the indicator of combustion characteristics of injected
coal. As shown in Fig. 5 with conventional lance, that
the fines sized under 3 mm increases with PCR, while 10% as we previously suggested [6], the raceway depth
the oxygen enrichment with co-axial lance decreases the decreased at higher PCR with conventional lance as
fines at the same PCR and even at 144 Kg/t-p it shows shown in Fig. 6.
similar level as 86 Kg/t-p. When co-axial lance is used, however, the raceway
Since the raceway zone acts as a distributor of gas as- depth increased in absolute values, The unbumt coal in
cending through the bosh and the shaft of furnace, a the raceway is blown into the coke bed to form the birds
complete combustion of injected coal is desirable even nest between the end of raceway and the surface of dead-
at higher PCRs. man. Since the birds nest makes the temperature of dead-
If we define the raceway depth as the distance from man to decrease, disturbs gas flow into the center of
tuyere tip to the point where the 3 mm fines reach deadman and makes the permeability worse, and it could
4 Jin Kyung CHUNG, Jeong Whan HAh~ and Jeong Ho LEE
Fig. 5. Difference in -3 mm size fraction with various
PCRs, lance configurations and oxygen enrichment at
tuyere level.
Fig. 6. The size variation of raceway and birds nest
with the change of PCRs.
change the direction of gas and cause heat losses
through the furnace wall [7], as discussed elsewhere, a
large birds nest is not desirable. There are several rea-
sons for the increase of fines in the deadman besides the
unburnt coal. It is well known that the extention of resis-
dence time with PCR in blast furnace makes coke di-
sintegrate. The properties of charged coke must be re-
lated to disintegration of coke as well [8].
3.2. Coke size changes with PCR
The results of analyses in Fig. 7 indicate that the vari-
ation of coke mean size along the radius of blast furnace
at tuyere level shows a pattern that the mean coke size
first decreases, and, then increases in some distance lt~
Fig. 7. Change of mean diameter of coke along the ra-
dius of blast furnace at tuyere level.
Fig. 8. Variations of bosh, raceway coke properties with
various PCRs.
have a peak at the birds nest. It represents that the large
coke is introduced into the raceway vacancy, then the
coke is burnt in the raceway with oxygen in the blast.
Coke strength index CSR' and strength index DI' were
also deteriorated with PCR as shown in Fig. 8.
The relationship between PCR and mean diameter of
coke at tuyere level in Fig. 9 also show a clear tendency
of decreasing mean diameter of coke at higher PCR. A
higher reactive coal in the raceway is gasified more
readily than coke, and at higher coal injection the ex-
 Coke Properties at 7~vere Level in Blast Furnace with Pulverized Coal Injection
Fig. 9. Change of mean coke size at tuyere level with
various PCRs.
tended residence time of coke in bosh gives more
chances of mechanical disintegration of coke, making
coke size smaller [9]. Accordingly, the accumulation of
coke fines in deadman as birds nest is expected to in-
crease with PCR, which could result in an increase of
gas permeability resistance index.
3.3. Prediction of coke size at tuyere level
The charged ore and coke keep their original shape
and size above the cohesive layer. Here, the burden spe-
ed (SP') is calculated as follows;
SP' (mm/min) = (C,,TJD~ + C,~ko/D~,,k,)/A' (1)
The residence time RT' (rain) = HJSP' (2)
Below the cohesive layer, ore layer is smelted down
into a liquid resulting in negligible volume and coke
size is drastically changed along the furnace height by
carbon solution reaction [2].
The burden speed (SP") is calculated as follows;
SP" (mm/min) = (C~,,ko/I)~,,~o)/A" (3)
The residence time here would be RT" (rain) = Htv'SP"
(4)
The total residence time is the sum:
RT(min) = RT' + RT" (5)
Since, the increase of PCR requires less charged coke,
the burden speed will be reduced to increase the resi-
dence time.
CSR, DI, MS of the charged coke, had influences on
the mean diameter of coke as shown in Fig. 10.
5
Fig. 10. Relationship between RT, CSR, DI, MS of
charged coke and coke mean diameter at tuyere level.
Through multiple regression analysis of these points an
equation to calculate the mean size of bosh coke from
RT, CSR, DI and MS of charged coke was obtained;
Dp = { 0.0423RT + 1.2MS + 1.5DI + 0.48CSR
-196}/1000 (6)
R= 0.9
As was well known, gas permeability resistance index
(K) in blast furnace is influenced by the pore size of bur-
dens and gas volume passing through the pore [1].
Besides the properties of burden materials, the pore
size is affected by ore/coke ratio. Since ore is smaller
than coke and the increase of pig iron production rate
means a higher ore/coke ratio, K value would increase at
a high production rate. Likewise, the permeability resis-
tance will increase with bosh gas volume. The effects of
coke properties on permeability tests were carried out by
charging different cokes on two consecutive days.
Results are shown in Fig. 11; RT calculated from charg-
ed ore, coke and PCR, is constant and the bosh gas
volume also becomes constant for all three days.
On 25th Aug. 1994, CSR increased and DI and MS
decreased more than those on 24th Aug., but LK was
not changed because of nearly constant mean diameter
of coke obtained from equation (6). LK increase on 26th
Aug. may be attributed to the change of coke properties,
since coke charged had lower CSR, and DI. As shown
in Table 2 the change of coke mean diameter calculated
6 Jin Kyung CHUNG, Jeong Whan HAN and Jeong Ho LEE

Table 2. Gas permeability resistance index predicted

and measured according to operating conditions
24th Aug. 25th Aug. 26th Aug.
Dp(m) 0.0262 0.02627 0.0252
(26th-25th Aug.) of Dp - 0.00107
e 0.465 0.465 0.467
0 1.1041 1.1046 1.0975
in Eq. (6) I
A 3402 3380 3646
B 184 183 ] 189
(26th/25th Aug.) of A 1.08
permeability resistance
1.8 1.94
predicted
(26th-25th Aug.) of
permeability resistance
0.16
predicted
Fig. 11. Changes of permeability resistance index (LK) permeability resistance
1.8 2.0
at lower part of blast furnace with coke properties. measured on operation
(26th-25th Aug.) of
permeability resistance
0.2
by equation (6) was 0.0107 m, when CSR and DI of measured on operation
charged coke dropped from 68.7 to 66.5, and from 88.6
to 88.3, respectively, although MS increased by 0.3 ram.
The gas permeability resistance at lower part of blast fur- sidered to be nearly constant. The change in AWL is
nace (LK) measured on 26th Aug. was 2.0 up by 0.2 then determined by the change of A. As shown in Table
from measured value on 25th Aug. 2, there was little change between A on 24th and 25th
To test the predictability of LK values, Ergun Aug., while A on 26th Aug., 5470 is much larger than
equation [10] which can estimate the change of the gas 5071 on 25th Aug. It means that AWL increased by 1.08
permeability resistance index through the calculation of times for decrease of 0.0107 m in coke size. In other
coefficients in the first and second term of the Eq. (7), words, LK increased by 0.16 from 1.8 to 1.94. There
was adopted and the results are listed in Table 2. was good agreement between the prediction and measur-
merit.
ziP = 150 ~_~_u + 1.75 pB u2 (711
L gc gc
4. C O N C L U S I O N S
(1 e)2 _ (l-e)
where, A ~I~' B - (~Dv)e3 (1) It was found from the coke sampling experiments
that as PCR increases the raceway depth decreases and
Table 2 was obtained based on the relationship of
the size of birds nest increases, resulting in bad gas per-
equation (6) between the coke mean size and other
meability. Coke degradation at tuyere level with PCR is
properties. The void fraction (e) was obtained from
the major cause as indicated by increase of the fines und-
the assumption of uniform diameter and the sphericity
er 3 mm.
(~) of coke was calculated according to equatuion (811
(2) Oxygen enrichment with the co-axial lance in-
[11]. creased the raceway depth and reduced birds nest thick-
heSS.
= 0.390 loglo(Dp) + 1.331 (8)
(3) The mean diameter of coke at tuyere level had a
According to the change of coke mean size (Dp) es- good relationship with the coke residence time (RT) and
timated by equation (6), B in equation (7) may be con- properties of charged coke like MS, CSR, DI in the
 Coke Properties at Tuyere Level in Blast Furnace with Pulverized Coal Injection 7

form of Cc,,ko : amount of charged coke (Kg/day)

D.... : bulk density of charged ore (Kg/m 3)
Dp = { - 0.0423RT + 1.2MS + 1.5DI
D~,,k~ : bulk density of charged coke (Kg/m~)
+ 0.48CSR -- 196}/1000 A' : cross sectional area at above the cohesive layer
The strength of sampled coke at tuyere level deteriorated (m2)
with PCR. A" : cross sectional area at below the cohesive layer
(4) Change of gas permeability resistance obtained (m-)
from the variation of coke properties was well matched SP' : burden speed at above the cohesive layer (ram/
with the prediction. rain)
SP" : burden speed at below the cohesive layer (ram/
NOMENCLATURE min)
SP : total burden speed in blast furnace (mm/min)
Dia. : tuyere diameter (mm) Hs : height of BF above cohesive zone (mm)
VB : blast volumetric rate (Nm3/min) Ha : height of BF below cohesive layer (ram)
PD : production rate of pig iron (ton/day)
Oxen : amount of oxygen enrichment ratio (Nm~/hr)
REFERENCES
TB : temperature of blast air ("C)
HMT : hot metal temperature (~
1. J. W. Han and J. K. Chung, in Puh,erized Coal Injection
PCR : pulverized coal injection ratio (Kg/t-p)
(II) (ed., M. Tokuda), p. 523, ICSTI, Sendai (1994).
LK : permeability resistance index in lower part of 2. A. Poos and N. Ponghis, in Fossil Fuel Injection in the
blast furnace (-) Blast Furnace (ed., J. W. Schroeder), p. 449, AIME,
K : permeability resistance index in blast furnace (-) Warrendale, PA (1990).
MS : charged coke mean size (ram) 3. T. W. Oshnock, in Blast Furnace Fuel Injection (ed., E.
CSR : coke strength index after reaction with CO2 ac- M. O'Donell), p. 123, AIME, Warrendale, PA (1994).
cording to JIS 2151 (%) 4. K. H. Peters, in Achieving Low Coke Rates through Use
DI : coke strength in air according to JIS 2151 (%) of High Injection Levels (ed., C. Pearcey), p. 250, EIC,
CSR' : strength index of coke which is sampled from Glasgow (1991).
blast furnace, after reaction with CO2 (%) 5. C. J. Atkinson, R. M. Poultney, C. R. Bennington, C.
DI' : strength index of coke which is sampled from Hitchinson and R. R. Willmers, in Coke, Burden and
blast furnace, in air (%) Reduction (ed., C. Pearcey), p. 395, EIC, Glasgow
Dp : estimated coke diameter in lower part of blast (1991).
furnace (m) 6. J. W. Han, J. K. Chung and T. D. Kim, J. Korean Inst.
M, ~. & Mater. 32, 204 (1994).
AP : pressure drop (Pa)
7. J . . Poveromo, Iron and Steelmaking 6, 22 (1979).
L : thickness of particle bed (m)
8. I;. Nakajima, S. Kishimoto, M. Motta, K. lshii, M.
u : gas velocity in vacancy (m/s),
Sakurai and S. Itagaki, NKK Technical Review No. 60, p.
0 : sphericity (-) 7 (I 990).
p : gas density (Kg/m 3) 9. T. Nishi, H. Haraguchi, Y. Miura, S. Sakurai, K. Ono
la : gas Viscosity (Pa - s) and H. Kanoshima, Tetu-to-Hagane 66, 1825 (1980).
: Newton's law proportionality factor (Kg 9 m/N - 10. S. Ergun, Chem. Eng. Prog. 48, 89 (1952).
s) 11. M. lchida, Y. lsozaki and K. Tamura, Tem-to-Hagane 77,
C .... : amount of charged ore (Kg/day) 1561 (1991).