Reaction behavior of formed iron coke and its effect on decreasing thermal reserve zone temperature in blast furnace

Usage of highly reactive coke in order to decrease the thermal reserve zone temperature in blast furnaces is promising to increase reaction efficiency in blast furnaces and to decrease the reducing agent rate. We focused on the catalytic effect of iron and succeeded in producing highly reactive formed iron coke with high iron content. In this paper the reaction behavior of formed iron coke when mixed with conventional coke and in the presence of alkali was investigated and the following results were obtained. When the mixture of iron coke and conventional coke is heated in a reaction gas, iron coke selectively and preferentially reacts near the thermal reserve zone temperature (900°C), which causes a decrease in the thermal reserve zone temperature, while conventional coke barely reacts and is protected from degradation. It was also confirmed that the catalytic activity of Fe and that of K is independent of each other and that in the presence of alkali, the reaction beginning temperature of iron coke is lower than that of conventional coke. These results show that the use of formed iron coke could decrease the thermal reserve zone temperature in an actual blast furnace where coke reactivity is promoted by condensed alkali vapor.