| Top Gas Recycling with Hydrogen – A Strategy to Reduced Blast Furnace CO2 Emissions Ian Cameron1; Ben Ellis2; 1HATCH, Mississauga, Canada; 2BHP, Singapore, Singapore; PAPER: 290/Iron/Regular (Oral) SCHEDULED: 15:15/Wed. 30 Nov. 2022/Arcadia 1 ABSTRACT: As part of the European Community’s Ultra-Low Carbon Dioxide Steelmaking (ULCOS) program, blast furnace top gas recycling was tested to reduce CO2 emissions using the LKAB experimental blast furnace. During tests from 2007-2010, the blast carbon rate was reduced by about 25% when CO recovered from blast furnace top gas was re-injected into the furnace stack using a second bustle pipe. Hatch and BHP have re-visited the top gas cycling concept to assess if additional technologies such as hydrogen and hot oxygen injection could be implemented to further reduce CO2 emissions beyond what was achieved at the experimental blast furnace. Using a 2-stage heat and mass balance model, viable operating conditions were established for a low carbon rate operation, significantly less than what was achieved in the ULCOS trials. Details of the enabling technologies to reach such low CO2 emission rates will be presented. |
