Effect of gas bottom blowing condition on mixing molten iron and slag inside ironmaking smelter

Abstract

In order to increase the productivity, the gas bottom blowing technique has been widely applied to mix molten iron/slag inside the ironmaking smelter. The main function of the technique is to increase the interface area between slag and iron, then to enhance the rate of the smelting reduction. In this study, the simulated experiments of the ironmaking smelter using water model were conducted to investigate the mixing degree of molten iron/slag under different gas bottom blowing conditions. In the experiments, the major parameters of the gas bottom blowing were the inside diameter of tuyere (6.0 to 15.0 mm), the total gas flow rate (320 to 480 normal liter/min), the placement of the bottom blowing tuyeres, and the stirring energy. In the water model, water and spindle oil were selected to be the substitute of liquid iron and molten slag, respectively, inside the smelter. Additionally, thymol was used as the tracer of mass transfer between the water phase and the oil phase. Based on the mass transfer rate equation with the analyzed data of thymol concentration during experiments, the mixing degree could be distinguished for different blowing conditions. In this study, it was found that the mixing degree of water and oil in the case of 10.0 mm inner diameter tuyere was higher than those of other size tuyeres under the same gas flow rate via 4 tuyeres. Also, the mixing degree increased with increasing the total gas flow rate. Additionally, the mixing degree in the case of 4 tuyeres in the square-corner placement was higher than that in the triangle-corner-center placement at the same tuyere size and total gas flow rate. If considering both mixing efficiency and the gas consumption, the best choice of blowing condition would be four tuyeres of 10.0 mm diameter in the square-corner placement under the total gas flow rate of 320 normal liter/ min. © 2009 The Japan Institute of Metals.