Per: Tamoghna MITRA (PAUL WURTH S.A.), Klaus-Peter KINZEL (PAUL WURTH S.A.), Björn RÖSNER (PAUL WURTH S.A.), Horst KAPPES (PAUL WURTH S.A.), Philipp BERMES (PAUL WURTH S.A.), Lorenzo MICHELETTI (PAUL WURTH ITALIA S.p.A.), Cristiano CASTAGNOLA (PAUL WURTH ITALIA S.P.A.), André Cabral de Oliveira (Paul Wurth do Brasil)
Abstract:
Blast furnaces are widely employed today for iron production all around the world, with a total production of around 1.2 billion tons per year. Its operating principle, which relies on usage of coke to reduce the ore, to ensure the permeability in the reaction vessel, to maintain its flexibility of operation and acceptability for varying qualities of iron ores. The blast furnace route is widely considered as the most economic and efficient route of iron production, however it is based on fossil energy carriers
The blast furnace route has undergone significant developments in terms of energy efficiency in the last decades, which led to a substantial reduction in the use of fossil reduction materials. Being an energy intensive process, competitiveness and cost saving in the blast furnace plant was always strongly related to the saving of energy and hence reduction of CO2 emissions. In addition to this, EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) as a cornerstone of the EU's policy in response to climate change has set new “challenges” for iron production in Europe.
Paul Wurth has always been deeply involved in the development of energy saving technologies for blast furnaces. In the following a review of energy saving achievements developed in the last decades will be presented and the potential of available CO2 saving technologies will be summarized. Additionally, an outlook about the potential of future technologies, concepts and their impact on the blast furnace and the steel plant’s energy balance will be discussed.
Finally, the replacement of carbon by hydrogen as reduction agent in the steel plant will be reviewed, with special focus on a comparison of costs and incentives.
