The Effect of Operational Parameters on the Characteristics of Gas-Solid Flow Inside the COREX Shaft Furnace

The COREX shaft furnace is of great importance to the whole C-3000 process. There are many problems with the operation of the COREX shaft furnace, especially with gas and burden distribution, that have as yet been little studied. The present work establishes a three-dimensional quarter model. After validation by operating data in Baosteel, the model is used to investigate the gas utilization rate and the metallization rate of the COREX shaft furnace. The parameters, including the reducing gas flow, the volume fraction of gas phase, and the multilayered burden, are systematically investigated. The results show that the reducing gas flow has a great influence on the gas utilization rate and the metallization rate, while the volume fraction of gas phase has a more significant effect on the metallization rate than on the gas utilization rate. In order to obtain a higher metallization rate, the reducing gas flow needs to be adjusted step by step and the volume fraction of gas phase needs to be increased. In addition, ore and coke need to be discharged separately in order to increase the solid metallization rate.