Tracking Technique of Burden Materials for Blast Furnace with Bell-less Top by using RFID

Abstract

In recent years, in order to reduce CO 2 emission and keep productivity in ironmaking process, high gas permeability and high reaction efficiency with maintaining stable operation are required in a blast furnace. To meet these requirements, it is important to control the burden material distribution and material mixed ratio accurately. A new tracking technique of burden materials in charging process by using RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags that are characterized by non-contact ID code recognition has been developed. In this technique, the active RFID tags, built in the durable case imitating coke or ore particles, are putted on the charged materials and detected their ID code at several points on the way of charging route. Their tracking accuracy and detection success rate were evaluated at the actual blast furnaces. As a result, the nut coke imitated tag's detection ratio on the time series was good agreement with the nut coke mixed ratio measured by sampling at the nut coke mixed charging. By considering the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), the passing timing of the tag could be estimated accurately within 1.3 s (one sigma) on the belt-conveyor. In the top collection hopper, tags were detected at just passing and its detection success ratio was over 83% of all putted tags. These results indicated that the developed tracking technique of burden materials would be useful for controlling the burden material distribution accurately and improving the blast furnace operation.