BLAST FURNACE PIG IRON MAKING PROCESS

Blast furnaces are usually tall shaft-type steel vessels, up to ten stories high, internally lined with refractory brick, and superimposed over a crucible-like hearth. The necessary charge to produce molten pig iron consists of iron-bearing materials, coke, and flux. The charge is introduced into the furnace at the top. Blasts of heated air from large blast stoves, and in most cases gaseous, liquid, or powdered fuel, are injected into the furnace through openings (tuyeres) at the bottom of the shaft just above the hearth crucible. As the hot air encounters the coke, the coke is burned along with the injected fuels, producing the necessary heat and reducing gas to remove oxygen from the ore in the reduction process. As the iron melts, it descends and accumulates in the crucible. The molten pig iron and slag are drained from the crucible through different tapping holes. The gas that exits from the top of the furnace goes through a cleaning process. The cleaned hot gas is then used in other operations of the plant, e.g. to preheat the blast air, while the collected dust is sent to the sintering plant for recycling back into the blast furnace. Once fired-up, a blast furnace burns continuously until the lining needs replacement (approximately 5-6 years). Glossary Iron-bearing materials - The iron-bearing materials are usually iron ore, sinter, pellets, mill scale, steelmaking slag, scrap, and other materials. Coke - The coke is added to provide the main chemical reagents (carbon and carbon monoxide) for the iron ore reduction. Flux - The flux, limestone and/or dolomite, is added to combine with ash in the coke and gangue in the ores, to produce a slag that rises to the top of the pool of molten pig iron that collects in the crucible.

At JAI BALAJI IND. LTD two mini blast furnaces of 250 m3 producing 600mt per day are equipped with the following auxiliary units. RAW MATERIAL YARD. 1. Raw material yard which can accommodate 15 to 20 days stock of materials for operating both the furnaces. 2. Concrete flooring is provided for stacking the material to minimize the losses. 3. Material is transferred with the help of dumpers to the raw material storage bins. RMHS 1. 2. a) b) Raw material is fed to bins with the help of conveyor belt system. Following the bin description. Two bins for Sinter with the holding capacity of 300t. One bin for Iron ore holding 350T.

c) Each one for Fluxes like Lime stone, Dolomite, quartzite and Manganese Ore to hold 70T each. d) Two bins for carrying low ash metallurgical coke of 150T. e) All the materials are carried to the furnace after proper screening using conveyor belt system. BLAST FURNACE 1. Blast furnace consists top charging equipment which consists Double bell system, Equalizing and relief valves and REBD ( rotary eccentric burden distributor) to charge the furnace 2. Inside refractory is protected by water cooling.( thin film of water is continuously sprayed on the outer shell). 3. Hot air is blown inside the furnace through the 10 no.s blow pipes and tuyeres and tuyeres are made of Copper which is cooled by water. 4. Every one hour once the metal and slag formed inside the furnace is tapped out into the ladles. 5. Tap hole opening is done by drilling machine and is closed with the help of Mud gun. 6. During every cast sample is drawn for both metal and slag and sent to Lab for analysis by which quality is maintained. PIG CASTING MACHINE (PCM). 1. The hot liquid metal which is tapped out from the furnace is collected in ladles and transferred to PCM with the help of Over head cranes of capacity 63T/20t an d placed on ladle stand for pig iron making. 2. Three pig casting machines are installed and each machine is equipped with 300 pig moulds. 3. Pig moulds are cooled with water spray and lime powder is coated on moulds for easy discharge of solid pig iron. 4. Solid pig iron is collected in dumpers and transferred to weighbridge for weighment and dumped in the dispatch yard based on the analysis. HOT BLST STOVES 1. Stoves are the big cylindrical structures mounted with dome and lined with fire clay refractory which are three in number for each furnace. 2. Stoves refractory is heated upto 1000 Deg c dome with the help of clean and dry blast furnace gas from gas cleaning plant before it starts supplying hot air to the furnaces. 3. The air which is blown to the furnaces gets generated from Blower house. BLOWER HOUSE 1. Blower house is equipped with 6 no.s blowers connected in series to generate air 40000Nm3/ hr with a pressure of 1.45Kg/cm2.

2. Five blowers are always in line and one is standby. GAS CLEANING PLANT(GCP) 1. Mainly GCP consists of Dust catcher, Saturator, Ventury scrubber and Cyclonic separator. 2. Coarse particles from blast furnace gas are gets collected in dust catcher and it was dumped on ground for disposal once in 8hrs. 3. Gas is cleaned by water spray inside the saturator and sludge mix water is diverted to thickner for sludge separation using chemical reagents. 4. Two Vetury scrubber are installed to create differential pressure and water is also sprayed for better cleaning of the gas. 5. After the above said cleaning the gas is allowed to pass through the cyclonic separator to get clean and dry gas for using in Stoves as well as in Sinter and power plants. 6. Total gas generation is 1.35 times (theoretically 1.4 times) blast air blown i.e. 54000Nm3/hr from each furnace. RAW MATERIAL CONSUMPTION NORMS AND PRODUCTION TARGET The following is the consumption norms for one month, Iron Ore 56000MT Coke 22000MT Lime stone5000MT Dolomite 3800MT Mn Ore 380MT Pig Iron Production 30625MT (Avg- 29000MT) Ferro Wastage 1900MT (Avg- 1800MT) Grannulted slag12250MT(Avg- 12000MT) Generation Solid waste/Hazardous waste Process 725MT Flue Dust ETP sludge 200MT Thickner sludge.