Modern Blast Furnace Gas Cleaning - A Report of State-of-the-Art Technology

Since almost 15 years Paul Wurth Umwelttechnik in Essen/Germany is dedicated to blast furnace gas cleaning. The technology developed, applied, and improved over the years is the so called Annular Gap Scrubbing technology. This wet gas cleaning technology in combination with our patented Axial Cyclone development represents a very efficient blast furnace gas cleaning. The axial cyclone is removing up to 85 % of the dust in the BF gas. Compared to a standard dust catcher which is still the main dry dust separation stage in the chain of BF gas cleaning it is a significant increase in dust separation and leads to a minimized amount of dust separated in the wet stage. Less water consumption, higher energy output with TRT operation, and less valuable BF dust which has to be dumped are the logic consequences of this BF gas cleaning arrangement. This results in sustainable cost savings and reduces significantly the environmental impact. The dry dust can be recycled via sinter plant. The zinc fraction of the blast furnace gas which shall not be recycled to the blast furnace will be removed in the annular gap scrubber.