Experimental Simulation and Analysis of Agricultural Waste Injection as an Alternative Fuel for Blast Furnace

Abstract

Focus on environmental issues has greatly increased in recent years. This development has led to a competitive advantage for innovative processes that are less harmful to the environment, because they satisfy the environmental consciousness of today's consumers, enable entrance into more competitive new markets, can even lead to direct profits in accordance with environmental conservation, and earn carbon credits by recycling greenhouse gases. such as CO 2 and CH 4 . The present paper shows the feasibility of using biomass, such as rice husk, sugar cane bagasse, elephant grass, coffee husk, and eucalyptus bark, as substitute materials for powder coal injection into a blast furnace, thereby leading to the replacement of part or even all of coal injected, which is not renewable and causes great environmental impact during mining and extraction. To simulate the possibility of injecting biomass materials, physical modeling, which has been developed for this purpose, is used. Further analyses are particle size classification, surface area, calorific value, and proximate and ultimate analyses. It has been concluded that, using these biomass materials, it is possible to reduce the specific carbon consumption in the blast furnace burden, which enhances the environmental commitment of the steel plant, and, moreover, to use waste generated in agriculture.

Avaliação Metalúrgica E Ambiental Da Injeção De Carvão Mineral E Capim Elefante (Pennisetum Purpureum) Pulverizado Em Alto-Forno

“…Isso pode ser explicado pelo maior teor de materiais voláteis, apresentado no capim elefante. Os voláteis aumentam a reatividade dos materiais, melhorando a combustibilidade dos mesmos, pois eles queimarão primeiramente que o carbono fixo [26] . Isso pode ser visto também nas misturas, ou seja, quanto maior a quantidade de capim elefante na mistura com carvão mineral, maior será a taxa de combustão, para cada taxa de injeção específica (50, 100 e 150 kg/t gusa).…”

Combustibility behavior of PCI coals, green petroleum coke and charcoal fines used as fuel for injection into blast furnace tuyeres

“…The development of PCI technology for the blast furnace tends to address energy and environmental issues. PCI stimulates innovations to BFs, through the use of recycled materials, such as waste plastics (Carpenter, 2010), recycled ores and biomass (Assis et al, 2014), and others material, such as tires and petroleum coke (Silva et al, 2010), usually by injecting mixtures with coal. On the other hand, as injection rates increase, more complex characteristics, such as combustibility, char reactivity, furnace permeability and flow properties, influence the selection of the fuels (Carpenter, 2010) are involved.…”

Selection of materials for blast furnace injection using quality indicators

“…In this case, it is better to focus on improving the combustion rate of the injected material which affects the injection rate, bringing financial gains in the production of hot metal. In other words, the search for materials with a higher combustion rate becomes advantageous (Assis, 2003).…”

“…Most of the carbon dioxide emissions are associated with the consumption of coke (1900 kg of CO 2 / ton of hot metal) and charcoal (800 kg of CO 2 / ton of hot metal), the first coming from a non-renewable source. Therefore, the use of charcoal and biomass for injection can make a viable alternative for the steel industry since the emissions will be relatively smaller and the costs may be associated with only transportation and preparation for injection, when these materials are waste from other processes (Assis et al, 2014).…”

“…In addition, biomasses are an alternative with great potential not only for the economic aspect, but mainly for the emission balance. Biomasses often consume more CO 2 during their growth than when they emit during their burning process (Assis et al, 2014).…”