8th International Congress on Science and Technology of Ironmaking - ICSTI 2018

Increase in blast furnace useful volume in course of reconstruction projects and increase in intensity of furnace operation is the major trends in hot metal production in Russian Federation. In majority of furnace enlargement projects the supporting structure, furnace foundation and part of the infrastructure remains the same, while furnace proper is completely replaced with installation of the following new modern systems: furnace shell, furnace cooling system comprised from combination of copper staves, plates and cast iron staves, bell-lest top charging devices, high temperature stoves, gas cleaning and aspiration systems, PCI, oxygen and natural gas injection, slag granulation system, modern control and expert system etc. The sinter and coke quality in industry gradually improves and more and better pellets are used in the metallic burden of blast furnace. As the result during last five years the number of blast furnaces in Russia decreases while hot metal production was increased. Although reconstruction of existing blast furnaces is a major way of improvement in production of hot metal, several new blast furnaces are recent built: “Rossiyanka “ (BF7) at NLMK, BF 7 at NTMK-Evraz and BF #2 at Sukhaya Gora Iron & Steel Works. As the result of these changes many blast furnaces in Russia, for example BF 7 “Rossiyanka”at NLMK, BF 1, 2 CherMK, BF 5 and 6 at NTMK-Evraz operate with World highest specific productivity (3.5-3.7 thm/m3/day) and low total fuel and coke rates, while using only domestic coals and iron ore.