EUROPEAN STEEL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION DAYS 2017 - ESTAD 2017

State of the art sinter coolers are working based on the cross flow cooling principle. Thus, only a part of the thermal energy can be used for heat recovery application. The other part of the cooling air is brought unused to the environment. Furthermore, environmental regulation regarding dust emission and intelligent usage of exergy are getting stronger. Therefore Primetals Technologies developed sinter coolers based on the counter flow principle. The cooling air passes the sinter bed in counter flow direction enabling a direct heat transfer from the hot sinter to the air. The exhaust air temperature can be maximized by using the total heat of the hot sinter. Due to the possible usage of the total exhaust air amount, diffusive dust emissions are reduced to zero. Two types of counter flow coolers are in the portfolio of Primetals Technologies. One type is based on a stationary shaft, into which the hot sinter is charged. The flow of the hot sinter is in vertical direction from top to bottom, in counter direction than the cooling air. The second type is a circular hopper cooler. The hot sinter is charged on top of a moving bed. At the bottom of the bed the sinter is discharged. The cooling air flows also from the bottom to the top, following the counter flow principle. These coolers are already in operation in Japan. Depending on the requirements, one of the two counter flow coolers types can be chosen for optimized and efficient cooling of hot sinter. Primetals Technologies offers energy-efficient and environmentally friendly sinter cooling solutions by means of counter flow coolers, either a shaft cooler or a circular hopper cooler.