Experimental analysis of injecting different blends of biomass materials and charcoal in a blast furnace.

Abstract

This paper aims to study the possibility of using charcoal, rice husk, sugarcane bagasse, coffee husk, eucalyptus bark and elephant grass and their blends as materials for blast furnace fuel injection. However, any blast furnace fuel must satisfy all the stringent quality requirements such as combustibility, calorific value and ash content. Elaborate processing is also necessary for flowability of the dry pulverized fuel produced from the biomass materials. These properties are evaluated in laboratory by an experimental simulator. The analysis showed the technical feasibility of biomass as an alternative fuel for the blast furnace process, which can contribute as a new energy source. This technique may be one approach to reduce the cost to the steel company by the partial replacement of the fuel materials like coke, and bring further advantages such as the reduction of greenhouse gas generation and obtain carbon credits.