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Behaviour of NINL Blast Furnace with 100% Calibrated Lump Iron Ore

Article · June 2011

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Journal of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering
Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Behaviour of NINL Blast Furnace with 100% Calibrated Lump Iron Ore
N. G. Banerjee1, R. K. Jha2 & Santosh Kumar3*
1
MESCO Steel, Jajpur, Odisha, India
2,3
Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited, Jaipur, Orissa, India

Abstract

A relation between sinter usages in burden and productivity are well established. Now a day,
almost all blast furnace usages a sinter in its burden charge. The percentage of sinter in blast
furnace is depending upon the availability of fines & sinter machine. But some time, due to
non-availability of fine or sinter machines, or both, only calibrated iron ore lump are used as
a source of iron in charge burden. The behaviour and characteristics of blast furnace changed
when 100% iron ore lump are charged as compared to iron ore lump and sinter in burden.
The behaviour of 100% iron ore lump (CLO) charged in furnace is focused in this paper.

Keywords: Blast Furnace, Iron Making, Iron Ore Lump (CLO), sinter, cohesive zone,
thermal reserve zone, Coke Rate

*Author for Correspondence E-mail: santosh178@rediffmail.com Mob: 8763107515

1. Introduction

The overall economy of an integrated steel
plant is very sensible to the performance of
blast furnace. Many variables affects the
performance of blast furnace, in particular,
the quality of raw materials is one of them.
Raw material constitutes 80% of the total
cost of hot metal and is a major factor
contributing the efficiency of the blast
furnace productivity and hot metal quality.
Quality of raw materials (iron ore, coke and
sinter) is the prime factors which attribute
the success of iron making producer. Now a
day one major challenged, in front of steel
producer, is cost control. Low cost hot metal
can be produced only when intensive burden
is prepared and charged to blast furnace,
effective utilization of all facilities at blast
furnace and controlling of blast furnace
operational parameters. A quality of burden
materials affects the techno-economy and
efficiency of the furnace operation. Intensive
burden can be prepared by utilizing raw
material of improved chemical quality,
strength, size consistency for uniform gas
distribution, reducibility (sinter and iron ore
lump) and reactivity (limestone, dolomite
and coke).
The advantages of higher percentage of
sinter in the burden like low silicon in hot
metal, higher productivity and low fuel rate
have been well established. Lump Iron ore
and sinter proportion in burden and its
chemical properties have a great impact on
the operation and performance of iron
making blast furnace. Burden charged in
furnace is dependent on form of iron ore
availability and sinter plant utilization.
Blast furnace at NINL, which was
commissioned on 2002, initially started with

© STM Journals 2011. All Rights Reserved. 1

Journal of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering
Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.

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100% calibrated iron ore lump. From 2005,
after commissioning of sinter plant,
proportion of CLO was reduced and
percentage of sinter was increased upto 80%
in burden. The percentage of sinter in
burden is totally dependent on availability of
iron ore fines and sinter machine
availability. Special features of NINL blast
furnace is given in table-1.

Table-1: Specific features of NINL blast furnace

SN Items Parameters
1 Useful Volume 1915 m3
2 Working Volume 1670 m3
3 No of Tuyeres 24 nos.
4 Total tap hole & angle between tap hole 2 nos. with 105o
5 Furnace height 39.257 m

2. Chemical Properties of Iron Ore

Due to non-operation of mines, NINL uses and loss of ignition (LOI) were determined
iron ore from several sources for its blast by X-ray fluorescence and wet chemical
furnace. The average chemical composition analyses.

Table-2: Average Chemical Properties of Iron Ore used in NINL blast furnace

Source Total Fe SiO2 Al2O3 LOI SiO 2

Al2O3
OMC, Daitari 63.5 1.2 1.3 5.4 0.9
Banspani Sector 66.0 1.8 1.3 2.0 1.4
TISCO, Noamundi 66.7 0.9 1.6 1.3 0.6
Juruli 64.7 1.6 1.6 3.4 1.0
NMDC, Kirandool 66.0 1.2 1.2 2.6 1.0
RML, Deojhar 66.0 1.3 1.6 1.7 0.8
Mishrilal 65.0 2.1 1.3 1.7 1.6
Manoharpur 63.5 0.8 2.4 5.7 0.3
Karampada 65.8 1.9 1.8 2.7 1.0
Thakurani 62.5 5.5 2.2 1.9 2.5
Surgatia 68.4 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.9
Baladila 67.5 1.0 0.6 2.6 1.7
Burgamunda 64.7 3.0 2.5 1.6 1.9
Putalpani 67.8 1.2 0.8 0.6 1.5

a) Effect of LOI performance as it determines the efficiency

Degradation of Iron ore-CLO inside blast of gas utilization and hence coke rate and
furnace, strongly affects blast furnace productivity. Iron ore of high LOI, when

© STM Journals 2011. All Rights Reserved. 2

Journal of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering
Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.
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charged in furnace, disintegrates at upper
stack of the furnace at the temperature
region of 250-350oC and thereafter decrease
the permeability of decent burden. Cracks
and disintegration of hematite grains appear
together with reduction of hematite. As
major quantity of Iron ore-CLO used in
NINL blast furnace was sources from
Daitari, which have a high value of LOI.
Table-3: Maximum wind acceptance by the burden using different source of iron ore-CLO.
SN Source of iron ore-CLO
1 Burden using Daitari iron ore-CLO
2 Burden using Juruli iron ore-CLO
3 Burden using Banspani iron ore-CLO
4 Burden using Beladila iron ore-CLO
b) Alkali effect
The influence of alkali’s on the productivity
of blast furnace has become a major concern
to the iron making industry. Under certain
conditions of the high slag basicity and high
hearth temperature, even if present in
relatively low concentration in the burden,
can rapidly accumulate in the blast furnace.
Due to presence of alkali in raw material,
coke consumption increases due to transfer
of heat to higher level in the furnace and
decrease in coke strength which is crucial
for gas permeability resulting earlier onset
of hanging tendency. Alkalis are also
responsible for scaffolds formation,
resulting fluidization, and channeling and
disturbed gas flow. In addition to this, when
scaffolds break away from the furnace walls,
hearth temperature may disturbed resulting
some extent of chilling of hearth. Alkalis are
introduced in the furnace through the raw
material, in the form of silicates, oxides,
carbonates, halides etc as a part of the
gangue in the iron ore-CLO, sinter,
limestone, dolomite and coke.
© STM Journals 2011. All Rights Reserved.
The wind acceptance by the burden reduced
when iron ore-CLO sourced from Daitari
charged to furnace, which indicates the
lowering of the permeability of burden. The
maximum wind acceptance at pressure 1.6
kPa by the burden is given in table-3, when
keeping almost similar size fraction of Iron
Ore-CLO from different source.
Blast Volume
(m3/min)
1700
1800
1850
1850
As during sintering process, 40% of the
alkali’s in the raw material are reduced,
therefore; at this point also, sinter charge has
benefit over reduction of alkali charge in
blast furnace.
c) Reduction behaviour of iron ore-CLO
& its effect on structure of cohesive zone
Iron ore-CLO charged into the blast furnace
contains iron oxides (ferrous & ferric oxide),
gangue minerals and pores. All the iron ore
used in NINL blast furnace are hematite in
nature. Depending upon the physical
characteristics and mineralogical
composition, reduction of hematite ores
starts between 200-500oC. The reduction
process of hematite to magnetite results in
distinct changes in morphology of
magnetite. These changes depend on
structural properties of parent hematite and
reduction conditions. Reduction of hematite
type of ore occurs in different stages, which
are given below:
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Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.

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3Fe2O3 +C → 2Fe3O4 +CO ∆H1 = + 28.38 KCal

Fe3O4 +C → 3Fe +CO ∆ H2 = + 49.98 KCal
FeO +C → Fe +CO ∆H3 = -37.38 KCal

Stage of iron ore reduction by CO

Fe2O3 +CO → Fe3O4 +CO2 ∆H4 = -12.85 Kcal
Fe3O4 + CO → FeO +CO2 ∆H5 = -8.76 Kcal
FeO + CO → Fe + CO2 ∆H6 = -6.85 Kcal
C + CO2 → 2CO ∆H7 = +41.22 Kcal

Reduction of Iron ore by Hydrogen

3Fe2O3 + H2 → 2Fe3O4 + H2O ∆H8 = -3.08 Kcal
Fe3O4 + H2 → 3FeO + H2O ∆H9 = + 18.52 Kcal
FeO + H2 → Fe + H2O ∆H10 = + 59.20 Kcal
C + H2O → CO + H2 ∆H11 = + 21.71 Kcal
Oxidation of solid carbon
C+½ O2 → CO ∆H12 = - 94.05 Kcal
C + O2 → CO2 ∆H13 = + 25.42 Kcal

i) Effect on cohesive zone 1300oC for sinter. Early formation of

Cohesive zone is a zone, where burden ores
soften and melt, which consist a number of
rings, shaped semi-molten ore layers. At this
semi fused zone, gas permeability greatly
reduces. The formation of the cohesive zone
is one of the most significant factors to
optimize the BF operation, which depends
on charging material properties, operation
conditions and the BF geometry.
The iron oxides are partially reduced in the
granular zone prior to entering the cohesive
zone. Shape and state of the cohesive zone
greatly influenced the blast furnace
distribution of the gas flow rate and
pressure. The liquid phases –iron and slag-
are formed in the cohesive zone and then
descend through the moving coke bed,
interacting with the ascending gas and coal
powder phases. An analysis of the literature
reveals that ,in case of lump iron ore charge,
there are early formation of cohesive zone as
compared to sinter in burden. These early
formation of cohesive zone are due to wide
softening-melting range of lump ore, i.e.
700oC-1300oC as compare to 1100OC-
© STM Journals 2011. All Rights Reserved.
cohesive zone or wider cohesive zone
reduces the reduction rate of Iron ore-CLO.
In case of 100% iron ore-CLO charge in
burden, early formation & shape of cohesive
zone some times responsible for cold
hanging of the furnace. NINL blast furnace
has also experienced with this type of
problem frequently during 100% iron ore-
CLO or lean sinter charge.
ii) Effect on thermal reserve zone
At the burden temperature of 950oC to
1000oC, a high temperature thermal zone
forms in a blast furnace. Start and end point
of thermal reserve zone (TRZ) i.e. area
under thermal reserve zone determines the
coke rate consumption. Indirect reduction of
wustite takes place in TRZ. Therefore,
proportion of indirect and direct reduction,
which determines the thermal efficiency of
furnace, are dependent on TRZ. The thermal
reserve zone is formed at the middle of the
furnace. At the lower portion of the furnace,
which called a processing zone/ melting
zone, direct reduction of remaining wustite?
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Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.

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takes place. So lower the melting zone better
will be the thermal efficiency.
In case of fluxed sinter, thermal reserve zone
starts at around 850oC and slightly extended
at vertically upward, whereas, in case of
100% Iron ore-CLO charge, thermal reserve
zone forms at 900oC. Area under thermal
reserve zone is smaller for Iron Ore-CLO as
compared to fluxed sinter. As, percentage of
indirect reduction is lower in case of 100%
Iron ore-CLO as comparing with sinter
charge in burden, fuel rate is higher for
100% Iron ore-CLO charge.
3. Burden load and distribution during
100% Iron ore-CLO charge
Burden load is one of the key operating
parameters influencing blast furnace
performance. It depends on the mostly on
the chemical and physical properties of iron
bearing material and coke. Wind acceptance
is depends on the burden layer inside the
blast furnace. In case of 100% iron ore-CLO
in charge, the layer thickness is kept thinner
as compared to sinter charge. These are only
due to the low permeability of iron ore-
CLO. Table-4 shows that as the sinter
percentage in burden decreases, the total raw
material charge to produce one tone of hot
metal increases. It is experienced that, for
production of one ton of hot metal, total raw
material charge for 80% sinter in burden is
in the range of 2150 kg to 2300 kg (varies
due to other factors contribution also).
Whereas for 100% iron ore-CLO charged
burden, the total raw material charge for one
ton of hot metal never less than 2400 kg.
These indicate the high burden load for
production of one ton of hot metal for 100%
Iron ore-CLO Charge.
The burden in a blast furnace moves
gradually downwards, which is caused by a
number of factors. It is calculated that (V G
Manchinsky, 1974), if the whole volume
freed from a blast furnace per unit time is
taken as 100%, 10% of it are due to
compaction, 5% to iron and slag tapping,
33% to smelting and 52% to coke
gasification.

Table-4: Raw material rate for production of one ton of hot metal. (Unit: kg/t HM)

Duration % sinter Iron Ore- Sinter BF Nut Flux & Total raw
in burden CLO Coke Coke additives material
2002-03 0% 1468 0 702 0 381 2551
2003-04 0% 1471 0 712 4 284 2471
2004-05 73 % 438 1170 542 40 40 2230
2005-06 78 % 344 1129 494 60 18 2045
2006-07 80 % 337 1301 508 64 6 2216
2007-08 80 % 371 1322 571 54 15 2333
2008-09 76 % 394 1224 536 61 7 2222
Apr’09 74 % 426 1206 584 33 36 2285
May’09 71 % 467 1132 516 66 5 2186
June’09 52 % 758 808 530 56 41 2193
Jul’09 0% 1497 0 607 43 233 2380
Aug’09 69% 495 1074 540 61 27 2197
Sep’09 79% 383 1209 529 40 2 2163

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Journal of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering
Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.
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Burden distribution is another key operating
parameters influencing blast furnace
performance, particularly the productivity
and the coke rate. The proper distribution of
burden materials improves bed permeability,
wind acceptance, and efficiency of gas
utilization. In a typical Indian blast furnace
equipped with a bell-less (Paul Wurth)
distribution system, the decrease in coke rate
that is due exclusively to burden distribution
was found to be 10-12 kg/t HM.
4. Hot Metal Chemistry
Control of silicon in hot metal is tremendous
advantage to the steel maker, in terms of
flux requirement, tap to tap time and
Table-5: Hot metal chemistry (source of iron ore: OMC Daitari)
SN % Sinter in burden Hot metal Composition
Temperature (oC)
1 0% 1370-1380
2 50% 1370-1380
3 60% 1370-1380
4 70% 1370-1380
5 80% 1370-1380
5. Feeding Problem of Lump to Blast
Furnace
Due to some clay-nature of Iron ore-CLO, it
is difficult to feed at high rate to the blast
furnace, especially in the month of
monsoon. Due to the sticky nature, these
Iron ore-CLO sticks on the conveyer belt
and at the liner plate of raw material bunker.
Therefore, it is very difficult to run blast
furnace with 100 % iron ore-CLO.
6. Techno-economics & Cost Measures
Cost of iron ore account for 10-35% (80% -
0% sinter in burden) of total cost of
production of hot metal.
© STM Journals 2011. All Rights Reserved.
economy of production. Normally, increase
in hot metal temperature is associated with
higher silicon levels. However, by
optimizing steam injection, better RAFT
control, introduction of mixed coke and
sinter charge and adjustment of the radial
gas flow distribution to obtain gas flow
through the centre, hot metal temperatures
have been increased to 1450oC with the
decrease in silicon level. Therefore, silicon
control is best achieved in sinter charge as
compared to iron ore-CLO charge.
As sinter has high percentage of phosphorus
compared to iron ore-CLO, therefore, low
phosphorus in hot metal is achieved in 100%
Iron ore-CLO charge.
% Si
>1.0% (80 % cast)
0.8-1.0% (80% cast)
0.75-0.9 (80% cast)
0.7-0.8 (80% cast)
0.5-0.7 (80% cast)
As the raw material plays the most decisive
role in reduction of hot metal cost,
improvement in raw material quality and
reduction in their specific consumption rate
and waste utilization (in sintering process)
recovered must attention.
At NINL following observation has been
made during last several years of operations.
A. As OMC Daitari iron ore lump has low
cost (around 30%-40% cheaper) and
easily available to NINL, as compared to
other source of lump ore. This factor
forced NINL to utilise large proportion
of lump ore from OMC, Dailtari, despite
of some disadvantage of its chemistry
and physical properties like high loss of
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Journal of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering
Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.
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ignition, low Fe content, wide range of
size fraction etc.
B. Increase in Fe in iron ore burden by 1%,
productivity increases by 1-1.25% and
decrease in coke rate by 1%. Thus input
cost by saving of hot metal by Rs. 50 /t
HM to Rs. 60/t HM depending upon the
source of iron ore used. Again reduction
of fluctuation of Fe by 1% reduce the
cost by Rs. 50/ t HM
C. Increase in sinter uses by 2%, average
Rs. 5.5 /t HM cost reduce in case of
OMC-Daitari lump ore used, in the
range of 65%-85% sinter usage. This
cost benefit is only based on raw
material cost reduction, whereas increase
in productivity account is not considered
with this calculation.
7. Results
Nature and shape of cohesive zone in blast
furnace determines its productivity. The
formation of cohesive zone depends on
Quality, burden composition and
distribution pf charge material and
operational parameters.
1) It has been observed that Daitari
lump ore has higher level of loss of
ignition (around 5%) and has great
impact on reducing gas permeability
due to cracking of ore at upper shaft.
2) Alkali charge in furnace is also
higher in case of lump ore, which
disturbs aerodynamics of the blast
due to formation of scaffolds.
3) As, in case of 100% lump ore
charge, cohesive zone formed at
early stage of reduction ands wider
range, again reduce the gas
permeability, ultimate reduce the
productivity. It is also responsible for
cold hanging of furnace.
© STM Journals 2011. All Rights Reserved.
4) Low indirect reduction and low
range of thermal zone lead to higher
coke rate in case of higher lump ore
charge.
5) Higher burden load in furnace during
100% lump ore charge, leads to low
production level.
6) High feeding rate of lump ore creates
problem, especially in rainy season.
This problem widen for wide range
of size fraction of lump ore and large
proportion of small fraction in lump
ore.
7) Low productivity and high coke rate
during high rate of lump ore leads to
higher cost of hot metal.
8. Conclusion
For efficient operation of any blast furnace
to achieve highest productivity, sinter in
burden is must. But, due to non availability
of sinter, blast furnace productivity can be
achieved higher by optimizing burden
distribution, control of operation parameters
and most important, regular assessment of
raw material, mainly CLO & Coke
characterization.
References
1. Man Sheng. CHU “Numerical Analysis
of blast furnace performance under
charging Iron-Bearing burdens with
high reducibility” International Journal
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13-19p.
2. Ghosh A. and Chatterjee A. “Iron
Making & Steel Making” Prentice Hall
of India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi. 2008.
126-137p.
3. Ajnan De. “Blast furnace burden
distribution: model studies” Blast
Furnace Iron Making SBA Publication,
New Delhi. 1995. 121-130p.
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Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2011, Pages 1-8.

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4. Wegmann Eu F. A Reference book for 8. Annual Statistics 2009-10. NINL. 2010.

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