PLANNING, CONSTRUCTION, START-UP AND INIT IAL OPERATING RESULTS OF SCHWELGERN NO 2 BLAST-FURNACE

The new Schwelgern No. 2 blast furnace of Thyssen Stahl AG was blown i n on 28th October 1993. This event was preceded by a two-and-a-half-ye ar approval procedure and a nineteen-month realization period. The pre sent article discusses the technical concept of the new blast furnace, the planning and realization phases up to completion, its start-up, a nd the operating experience gained to date. Europe's largest blast fur nace, Schwelgern No. 2, is designed for a hot metal production of 10 6 00 tpd. It has a hearth diameter of 14.9 m and a working volume of 476 9 m(3). Almost 200 contractors and 500 individual orders were involved in its construction. A total of, inter alia, 75 000 m(3) of reinforce d concrete, 11 000 t of reinforcing bar steel, 28 300 t of refractory material, 44 000 t of machinery, steel and vessel components and 3 000 t of piping were required for the various parts of the plant. The con cept of the blast furnace and its ancillary facilities is state-of-the -art. Particular attention was paid to environmental acceptability. Th is applies especially to the dedusting systems of the casthouses and s tockhouse. Solutions that had been tried and proven in-house as well a s successfully tested internationally were used for the refractory lin ing and cooling systems. Eighty percent of the rated capacity were att ained as early as November 1993. Following a production of 3.2 million tonnes of hot metal in 1994, it was possible in July 1995 to achieve the highest hot metal output in a month so far at 333 000 t.