CFD Modeling and Validation of Blast Furnace Gas/Natural Gas Mixture Combustion in an Experimental Industrial Furnace

The use of residual gases from steel production processes as fuel for steel treatment furnaces has attracted great interest as a method for reducing fossil fuel consumption and the steel footprint. However, these gases often have a low calorific value, and a direct substitution can lead to low temperatures or combustion instability issues. CFD simulations of the combustion of these gases can help steel producers forecast the results of the substitution before real testing and implementation. In this study, a CFD model of an industrial experimental furnace in the steel sector is developed and validated. The results are calculated using the combustion, radiation, and heat transfer models included in the software Ansys Fluent. The validation of the simulated results is performed with data acquired from experimental tests under the same simulated conditions at three air-to-fuel equivalence ratios, which vary from an excess of 0% to an excess of 5% oxygen at the outlet. The model is adjusted to the results, capturing the trends of the measured physical variables and pollutant concentrations. In the case of the combustion temperature, the differences between the simulated and measured values vary from 0.03% to 6.9. Based on the simulation results, the use of blast furnace gas as fuel produces temperatures inside the chamber between 1004 degrees C and 1075 degrees C and high stream velocities because of the high flow needed to keep the power constant. Flames exhibit straight movements since the high flows absorb the effect of the swirling flames. The addition of natural gases increases the combustion temperature up to 1211 degrees C and reduces the flow and length of the flames. Finally, temperatures up to 1298 degrees C and shorter flames are reached with natural gas enriched with a stream of oxygen, but in this case, NOx emissions need to be controlled.