INTRODUCTION OF OXYGEN IN THE REHEATING-FURNACE SECTION

M. P. Revun, V. A. Bondarenko, UDC 621.783.224.004.15

O. I. Tishchenko, M. A. Akbiev,
V. F. Markov, A. G. Kasatkin,
and B. G. Vysochin

The recuperative-furnace section of the primary mill shop at the Karaganda Metallurgical
Combine has introduced a method of heating metal with oxygen-enriched air. Commercially
pure oxygen is delivered under I0 kgf/cm 2 pressure from the oxygen shop to the furnace sec-
tion along a pipeline 125 mm in inside diameter (ID) (Figs. I, 2). The oxygen is conducted
along the right and left sides of the section by I00 mm-ID pipes and is supplied to furnace
groups by pipes 50 mm ID. Experience has shown that such diameters of pipes ensure the
necessary capacity for delivery of oxygen.
The following automatic control system elements are provided at the furnaces on one side
of the section: recording of consumption and cutoff of oxygen, along with remote control us-
ing a control element. Only cutoff of oxygen is provided for on the second side of the sec-
tion. A system has been developed and tested for the automatic synchronization of oxygen and
fuel supply, ensuring an increase in fuel consumption with the delivery of oxygen and its
shutoff when the furnace is operating on the soaking mode. Limiting disks with a through-
section diameter of ii mm are installed in the pipes at each furnace to limit the consumption
of oxygen. With fluctuations in oxygen pressure from 8 to i0 kgf/cm 2, maximum oxygen con-
sumption varies from 460 to 550 m3/h.
At present, four systems for supplying oxygen to the furnaces are known (Fig. 3). Three
of them (a, b, and d) have been introduced at furnaces of the Karaganda combine. According
to system (a), oxygen is supplied to a single furnace; in accordance with (b), to 21 furnaces;
according to (d), 22 furnaces. All of the systems are sufficiently reliable. However, the
first is time-consuming with regard to assembly and startup operations. Systems (b) and (d),
first tested at the furnaces of the Karaganda combine, are practically equivalent. The lat-
ter has an advantage in the installation or cleaning of nozzles (stainless steel tubes with
an ID of 22-24 mm) on operating furnaces.
One group of furnaces has been operated with oxygen-enriched air since 1973. The ef-
fectiveness of oxygen use depends substantially on the loss of air in the recuperators. A
supply of 450-500 m3/h oxygen into a furnace compartment reduces total heating time by 10-35%.
After capital repairs to the furnaces, the minimum decrease in heating time was of the order
of 10%, oxygen in this case having been used as an equivalent of part of the air.
Upon completion of setting-up and startup work, studies were conducted during the simul-
taneous introduction of oxygen to different furnaces in one-half of the section. The thermal
operation of the furnaces was investigated by the heat engineering laboratory of the combine,
while the quality of heating was studied by the central laboratory and department of technical
control of the combine. Here, 105 controlheatingswere conducted, 63 of them with oxygen.
Oxygen (200-500 m3/h) was supplied only during the heating period, when temperature was
still rising. This made it possible to increase the heating capacity of the furnaces (with
an additional increase in gas consumption) by an average of 12.6% and to raise the fuel com-
bustion temperature. Furnace productivity in heating ingots was increased by 10-15%, and "fuel
consumption was reduced by 2-4%. The total consumption of oxygen was 6-8 m ~ per ton of steel.
With an oxygen consumption of 500 m3/h, the mean reduction in heating time was 15%, and oxygen
consumption amounted to 9-10 m 3 per ton of steel. The average temperature of the metal, mea-
sured during rolling, was satisfactory.
No ingots were rejected due to cracks, near-surface honeycomb blowholes, or surface de-
fects when heated with oxygen in LPTs-I (primary mill shop No. i). Of the metal heated with

Zaporozhe Industrial Institute. Karaganda Metallurgical Combine. Translated from

Metallurg, No. 12, pp. 31-33, December, 1977.

0026-0894/77/1112-0833507.50 9 1978 Plenum Publishing Corporation 833

 I
Fig. i. Arrangement of pipes in the furnace section: I)
cutoff to each group of type 15 kch 16 br; II) cutoff for
exhausting the pipes; III) cutoff for the type 100-16-3
kl side of the section.

T Blow-offpipe
iOxygen1
Isupply ~[

Recg~ ~16 ! To synchronizationand 8~[

~4. ~ " cutoff system

F i g . 2. Arrangement o f p i p e s and b a s i c a u t o -
tactic control system elements for a furnace
group: i) diaphragm; 2) differential membrane
manometer; 3) secondary recording instrument;
4) control knob for check val~es and actuators;
5) check valves; 6) actuators; 7) cutoff for
supply of oxygen to the furnace unit; 8) valves.

a supply of oxygen toLPTs-2, 0.54% were classed in group 3 with respect to surface quality,
while 0.9% of metal heated the same month under conventional conditions was so classed.
Oxygen is used in two ways: simultaneously with the supply of oxygen, either fuel con-
sumption is increased, or part of the air is replaced by oxygen with no change in fuel con-
sumption. The second method is used in furnaces with inadequate draft. In no case did the
heating capacity of the furnaces exceed the design value. The maximum degree of enrichment
at low consumptions of air was 30-32%.
The studies showed that the mean heating capacity of furnaces in the section was 15-20%
below the design heating capacity, and there was a corresponding decrease in their p r o d u c ~
tivity. The use of oxygen to enrich the air allows us to compensate for these losses in
productivity.
One of the problems encountered in heating is scaling, the amount of scale formation
depending on the temperature of the metal during soaking and the combustion of fuel in this
period. The higher the temperature, the greater the probability of scaling and the greater
the total loss of metal. It is necessary to ensure a lowering of the fuel combustion temper ~
ature in this period, and to stabilize the soaking temperature. In heating metal without
oxygen, the calorific value of the fuel should be 2200-2300 kcal/m 3. The use of oxygen

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 a OXy~eD.

ygen o

F i g . 3. System of oxygen i n p u t i n t o r e -
c u p e r a t i v e f u r n a c e : a) i n t o a i r r e c e i v e r s ;
b) t a n g e n t i a l l y i n t o v e r t i c a l a i r d u c t ; c)
v e r t i c a l l y i n t o h o r i z o n t a l a i r d u e t ; d)
tangentially into horizontal air duct.

allows a reduction in the calorific value of the fuel, in this case improving the qualitative
indices of heating during the soaking period and not reducing furnace productivity.
To evaluate the use of oxygen with respect to reducing the calorific value of the fuel,
we conducted comparative industrial tests over 5 days. The results are shown below:

Side of section Left Right

Araount of metal heated, thousands of tons ............ 32.073 31o354
Amount of gas, thousands of mS:
blast-furnace ..................................... 2571 2236
coke-oven .......................................... 839 730
propane--butane ..................................... 33.8 67.4
Calorific v a l u e of fuel, kcal/m ~ ..................... 1800 2200
Amount of oxygen, thousands of m s .................... 336
Consumption per ton of steel:
oxygen, m 3 ......................................... 10.4
comparison fuel, kg ................................ 30.0 32.2
Mean temperature of ingots, ~ ....................... 844 842

The left side of the furnace section was changed over to heating with fuel having a
calorific value of 1800 kcal/m 3 with the supplying of oxygen during the heating period, The
right side was operated, as usual, on fuel with a calorific value of 2200-2300 kcal/m 3. The
use of oxygen reduced propane--butane consumption by 50% and increased furnace productivity
by 2%. However, due to an increased consumption of blast-furnace gas and coke-oven gas,
total savings in comparison fuel were only 7%, while mean consumption of oxygen was 10.4 m3/
ton of steel, taking into account the heating of cold ingots. Scaling of ingots decreased 10%.
With a furnace section productivity of 5 million tons/yr, mean consumption of oxygen was
5500-6000 m3/h. Maximum consumption of oxygen by the section during peak operation reached
8000-9000 m3/h.
Thus, oxygen may be used in the furnace section by two variants: increase in productivity
(variant I) or fuel savings (variant II). Since the section has not yet achieved design.
capacity, variant II is preferable to minimize additions of propane--butane.
The use of oxygen only during the period when temperature is increasing (heating period)
has no effect on scaling at existing calorific values and consumptions of fuel. When oxygen
is supplied during the soaking period, scaling increases. Thus, instructions prohibit the
use of oxygen during this period. Technical--economic indices of furnace operation depend
on the variant of oxygen use, as can be seen from the following data:

835
 I II
Production cost of I m 3 of oxygen, rubles ..... 0.128 0.139
Reduction in fuel costs, rubles ............... 0.018 0.139
Reduction in conditional fixed expenses, rubles 0.156
Savings, rubles ................................ 0.046

Data for calculation of basic production costs are shown below, in rubles:
Conditional fixed expenses for heating i
ton of steel ................................ 1.04
Production cost of fuel per i000 m3:
blast-furnace ............................... 1.4
coke-oven ................................... 8.0
propane--butane .............................. 145.0
Production cost of oxygen per i000 m 3 ......... 13.34

The reduction in the cost of heating by variant I was calculated for a 15% increase in
furnace s~ction and mill productivity. Such an increase is possible with the introduction
of new furnace groups, the cost of which, together with building construction costs under
conditions existing at the Karaganda combine, would be more than 3 million rubles. The
construction of a Kt-12 fractional distillation unit (12,000 m3/h capacity) with building
would cost only 2 million rubles. Thus, the introduction of oxygen would b e m o r e economical.
To calculate heating costs by variant II, we used data shown earlier, calculated for a
single level of productivity for a given side of the furnace section. Since the mean charg-
ing temperature is the same on both sides, then a difference in productivity would be explained
by a difference in the total oxygen consumption. The amount of heated metal on both
sides of the section was taken as 31,354 tons. Accordingly, fuel consumption was decreased
2% on the left side of the section.
The cost of implementing measures in the furnace section was 114,000 rubles. Taking
5 million tons as an example of annual section productivity, the use of oxygen by variant
I would result in recovery of the cost of these measures in about 6 months; by variant II,
given the present cost of oxygen and propane--butane, heating cost would not change, but the
quality of the heated metal would be improved. The expediency and effectiveness of using
oxygen at different plants depends substantially on the cost of oxygen and the fuel used,
their availability, and the necessity of increasing furnace section productivity.

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