Austria-based plantmaker Siemens VAI Metals Technologies has received an order for a pulverized coal injection plant (PCI) from Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) UK. The plant will be constructed for the SSI blast furnace in Redcar, northeastern England, and is scheduled to come into operation in the latter part of 2012. The injection of pulverized coal will reduce the coke consumption of the blast furnace, which, in turn, will reduce both expenditure on raw materials and energy consumption.
Before injection, the coal will be dried and ground by a hot gas swept roller mill. This will be rated to produce 120 metric tons of pulverized coal per hour, making it one of the world's most highly productive coal mills used with a blast furnace. A pneumatic dispensing system will inject precise amounts of pulverized coal into the blast furnace tuyeres. The injection rate can be varied according to need from between 30 to 235 kg of pulverized coal per metric ton of hot metal.
The new PCI plant will enable SSI to replace some of the coking coal it uses by cheaper, non-coking coal. This will significantly reduce both the cost of raw materials and the specific energy
consumption. The total energy consumption will be further reduced by utilizing the offgases from the hot-blast stove in the drying and grinding plant.
With a hearth diameter of 14 meters and a nominal capacity of over 10,000 metric tons of hot metal per day, the SSI blast furnace in Redcar is one of the largest in the world. The furnace, which was shut down by the previous owner in February 2010, was upgraded by SSI, and was blown-in in mid-April this year.