Editors: | F. Kongoli, G.Brooks, P. Butterworth, M. Geerdes, Y. Gordon, M. Grant, L. Lu, D. Lu, K. Saito, H. Sohn, T. Usui. |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2022 |
Pages: | 276 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-989820-54-4(CD) |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
KEYWORDS: Banking, Burden, Oxy lance, Start Up, Ramp Up. ABSTRACT Blast Furnace operation is a continuous process and goes on till the end of its campaign except for some short shut down for maintenance or repair work. Banking of a blast furnace is like the operation of banking a fire and it is covered with fuel to restrict air preserving it for future use during furnace start up [1]. Banking of a blast furnace is generally done to take care for any unwanted situation. Nowadays most of the blast furnace operators prefer to blow down the furnace instead of banking because starting up of a banking furnace is associated with more risk and always unpredictable than a blowdown of a blast furnace [2]. Blowdown of a blast furnace needs a lot of preparatory activities which normally take time, but E & C Blast furnace of Tata Steel had to be banked on urgent basis initially for 1 month in March’20 due to unavoidable circumstances of COVID’19. Later banking period was extended to 3 months due to increasing trend of COVID’19 pandemic. Startup of a banking furnace, always unpredictable in nature, requires lot of preparation and the task becomes more challenging when banking period is extended [3]. Since a banking blast furnace revival is a hazardous activity, generally expertise with sound technical knowhow on banking blast furnace revival is required. For reviving a banked blast furnace, usually technology like Oxy Fuel lance or Durfee Method is applied [4]. E & C both blast furnaces were banked with calculated amount of burden for 1 month and revived successfully with help of in house designed Oxy Lance even it was extended to 3 months. For reviving a banking blast furnace, hot blast temperature also plays a very important role. Hot blast is generated through heating cold air by a cyclic process namely” On Gas & On Blast” in a blast furnace stove. A certain degree of hot blast temperature is required to burn the fuel inside the furnace which was charged during banking. E & C Blast furnace achieved desired degree of hot blast temperature by in-house designed tri-axial lance for initial and faster heating of stove with combination of Coke Oven Gas, Blast Furnace Gas and Compressed Air. This paper will describe in detail revival process of E & C blast furnace of Tata Steel.
REFERENCES: [1] Satyendra, Ispat Guru, Methods of Shutting Down a Blast Furnace. [2] M.A.Alter, D.J.White, C.C.Mcgovern, Blast Furnace Banking and Blowdown: A Theoretical and Practical Approach to Preparing for an Extended Outage and Start-Up, Aistech 2015 Proceedings@2015 by AIST [3] V.P.Russikikh, M.A.Alengos,V.I.Levchenko, Removing a Blast Furnace from Service, Metallurgist, Vol.53, Nos 1-2,2009. [4] Walter W.Durfee and John P.Foley, Application January 15,1947, Serial No-722,1947.