Impact of operational parameters on fuel consumption of a blast furnace

Abstract Process analyses foster opportunities for identifying losses during the production process and consequently, provide courses of action to enhance the process with operational parameters that are compatible with the targeted results. In this study, a thermochemical model was developed in order to monitor the performance of coke-based blast furnaces, focusing on tools for calculating and graphically displaying parameters that facilitate interpretation of the internal phenomena. To apply the model, a database was prepared based on operational simulations of blast furnaces. The input parameters for the model consisted of the properties and consumption of raw materials and the mass and thermal balances of the process. The thermochemical model is based on the calculation of the degree of reduction of the metallic burden in the preparation zone, defined as the omega factor. It was found that the omega factor varies significantly with the CO/CO2ratio and %H2of the top gas. The results obtained by applying this model were coherent, thus validating it as a predictive tool for assessing the sensitivity of the omega factor, which has a major effect on carbon consumption.