Ecological hot metal production using the coke plant and blast furnace route

Abstract

\n \nThe coke plant/blast furnace will remain dominant for the production route from \niron ores to crude steel.There exists a community of fate for the coke plant \nand the blast furnace as blast furnaces cannot be operated without coke for physical \nreasons. For cost optimization, it was and is important to minimize the coke rate in \nthe blast furnace and to utilize the by-products of the blast furnace and of the \ncoking plant. The paper discusses, for an interconnecting network of an integrated \niron and steelworks, the potentials of the use of coke oven gas and blast furnace gas. \nThe coke oven gas can be utilized for electric power and heat production, for conversion \ninto hydrogen and methanol as well as reducing gas in the blast furnace or in a DRI plant. \nBlast furnace gas can be used conventionally for blast heating, coke plant underfiring \nand power production, or it can be recycled to the blast furnace in the nitrogen-free \nblast furnace process and in the plasma heated blast furnace process. A critical \ncomprehensive assessment is also given for these potentials with respect to \nCO2 emissions.\n\n