Using coal-dust fuel in Ukrainian and Russian blast furnaces

Ukrainian and Russian blast-furnace production falls short of the best global practices. It is no secret that, having switched to oxygen and natural gas in the 1960s, the blast-furnace industries have improved the batch and technological conditions and have attained a productivity of 2.5 and even 3 t/(m{sup 3} day), but have not been able to reduce coke consumption below 400 kg/t, which was the industry standard 40 years ago. The situation is particularly bad in Ukraine: in 2007, furnace productivity was 1.5-2 t/m{sup 3}, with a coke consumption of 432-530 kg/t. Theoretical considerations and industrial experience over the last 20 years show that the large-scale introduction of pulverized fuel, with simultaneous improvement in coke quality and in batch and technological conditions, is the only immediately available means of reducing coke consumption considerably (by 20-40%). By this means, natural-gas consumption is reduced or eliminated, and the efficiency of blast-furnace production and ferrous metallurgy as a whole is increased.