By assessing stove parameters and performance, followed by expert modernization advice, the stove performance can be enhanced leading to better ironmaking operations and production.
Hot Blast Stoves
One of the main pieces of equipment that needs to be working efficiently for optimising performance is the Hot Blast Stoves. They are significant consumers of energy so need to be in tip-top condition to help keep the fuel requirements down. In addition, the stoves provide the lowest cost heat input to the blast furnace process, which is the largest energy consumer in the steel plant, and thus optimised stove operation can have significant impacts on plant energy consumption and CO2 emission levels.
Siemens VAI is able to offer a variety of stove studies and health check investigations to ultimately enhance your stove performance, leading to better operation and production from the blast furnace. We are able to offer a variety of stove studies and health check investigations to ultimately enhance stove performance, leading to better operation and production from the blast furnace. A very powerful capability is the full process evaluation that looks at the entire blast furnace performance for various options. This allows the net blast furnace performance (stove enrichment gas, coke rate, coal injection rate, productivity impacts, overall hot metal costs, etc) and capital requirements to be determined for each case to allow customers to determine the optimum case for their operation. The hot blast stove services include: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model investigations are used to test and evaluate existing designs as well as new ideas/designs prior to implementation. Stove performance reviews using our in-house stove design model actual operating data can be reviewed against model predicted data to establish an agenda for further physical investigations and stove improvements. Physical inspections which can include internal inspection; external inspection of shell; review of field measurements (e.g. chequer chamber pressure drop) and reviews of control system configuration. Optimal rebuild reviews by using our in-house model which can analyse existing stove performance and predict the performance during the rebuild or repair. It is also possible to evaluate the impact of installing a fourth stove to prevent the loss of hot metal production or the increase in fuel consumption during the rebuild period due to two stove operation. Fuel optimisation resulting from the new stove operation can be calculated to determine the potential costs savings and return on investment. This allows the net blast furnace performance (stove enrichment gas, coke rate, coal injection rate, productivity impact, overall hot metal cost, etc.) and capital requirements to be determined for each case to allow customers to determine the optimum case for their operation. Optimum stove sizing can be undertaking with our in-house model giving us the possibility to compile a completely detailed investigations into the stove sizing. Additional equipment feasibility reviews for the installation of new equipment e.g. waste heat recovery can also be investigated.