A Steady State Thermal and Material Balance Model for an Iron Making Blast Furnace and Its Validation with Operational Data

Abstract

In view of scarcity and depletion in the quality of raw materials as well as stringent environmental regulations, judicious use of resource and adoption of optimal operating practices have become the prime concern in iron and steel industries. Real time forecasting and supervision of the process behavior is an important step in addressing these issues. As a part of the tool termed "Real Time Process Simulator (RTPS)", containing several reduced order models for real time monitoring and prediction of the internal dynamics of iron making blast furnace, a mathematical model for material and thermal analysis has been developed, mainly to predict the top gas composition, raw material consumption and overall heat balance. The model predictions have been tested against actual plant data. The raceway adiabatic flame temperature has been calculated using data similar to that of an operating plant. The calculated heat distribution of the process has been presented in the form of a SHANKEY diagram. The RTPS, containing the present model has been implemented in an Indian integrated steel plant. Prior to implementation, the model has been tested and validated in the plant operational range with the help of a virtual platform