Analysis by multiphase multicomponent model of iron ore sintering based on alternative steelworks gaseous fuels

This paper presents the numerical simulation of the technology of gaseous fuel utilisation for iron ore sintering. The proposed methodology is to partially replace the solid fuel by steelworks gases. A multiphase mathematical model based on transport equations of momentum, energy and chemical species coupled with chemical reaction and phase transformations was proposed to analyse temperature distributions of the process. A base case of actual industrial operation of a large sintering machine was monitored with thermocouples inserted into the sinter bed to validate the model. The model was used to predict four cases of fuel gas utilisation: feeding from N01 to N15 wind boxes with blast furnace gas (BFG); natural gas (NG); coke oven gas (COG); and a 50-50 mixture of BFG and COG. The model predictions indicated that for all cases the sintering zone is enlarged and the solid fuel consumption could be decreased.