Sustainable Aspects of CO2 Ultimate Reduction in the Steelmaking Process (COURSE50 Project), Part 1: Hydrogen Reduction in the Blast Furnace

Abstract

COURSE50 (CO 2 Ultimate Reduction in Steelmaking process by innovative technology for cool Earth 50) aims to increase the proportion of hydrogen reduction in the blast furnace. This objective raises the key issue of heat balance changes in individual regions as well as in the overall blast furnace. In order to compensate for the endothermic reactions of hydrogen, a decrease in direct reduction by carbon, a huge endothermic reaction, is being executed. Among the various hydrogen sources available in the industry, coke oven gas (COG) was chosen because of its availability and stability. However, COG requires reforming for it to be injected into the shaft of the blast furnace because this zone cannot combust the hydrocarbon components of COG. COURSE50 has carried out successful COG and reformed COG injection trials at LKAB's experimental blast furnace in Luleå, Sweden, in cooperation with LKAB and Swerea MEFOS. Carbon consumption in both the COG and reformed COG injection periods decreased compared with the base period because of the planned increase in hydrogen reduction instead of direct reduction by carbon. These results indicate the possibility of increasing the amount of hydrogen reduction in the blast furnace.

A General Vision for Reduction of Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions from the Steel Industry

“…Numerous R&D programs and projects have been carried out over the last 10-15 years or are on-going. The European ULCOS program, COURSE50 in Japan, the POSCO program in Korea, the Australian CO 2 Breakthrough Program (CO2BTP, ISP), and the AISI CO 2 Breakthrough Program in North America as renowned examples [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. In addition, comparable projects have been reported in China, India, and Taiwan [13,17,[31][32][33][34].…”

“…In conventional ironmaking, hydrogen is retained in the background in BFs, as the volatile hydrogen-rich matter in the coal-to-coke process is removed in coke oven gas (COG), which is an important heat source and energy storage in an integrated steel plant. Interest in co-injection of COG in BFs has recently increased [24][25][26]. COG decreases coke consumption and CO 2 emissions in BF, whilst also cutting off a bit of the total energy supply of the integrate, which then must be replaced by another energy source.…”

“…Acronyms are explained in the text. Outlined based on literature data[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”

Fate of Nitrogen and Sulfur during Reduction Process of Carbon-containing Pellet Prepared by Vapor Deposition of Gaseous-Tar and the Influences of the Hetero Elements on the Reduction Behavior and Crushing Strength

“…8) If a composite with large amounts of C, a high crushing strength, high reduction reactivity, and low RDI can be prepared gaseous-tar, it may be applicable for blast furnaces in conventional or advanced iron-making processes (COURSE50). [9][10][11] For the above-mentioned composite preparation, it is considered that the utilization of the conventional process is effective. In other words, if COG containing gaseous-tar produced from the cokemaking process and its sensible heat can be utilized for composite preparation, the production can be completed in integrated iron steel plants.…”

Advanced Packed-Bed Ca-Cu Looping Process for the CO2 Capture From Steel Mill Off-Gases

“…The COURSE50 programme has been focused on investigating the potential of H 2 -rich gases, such as coke oven gas (COG), as reducing agents in the blast furnace instead of coke. In this line, novel chemical and physical adsorption methods have been developed to capture first the CO 2 from the blast furnace gas (BFG) and then use waste heat available in the steel plant for the regeneration of the sorbents (Tonomura, 2013;Nishioka et al, 2016).…”