To clarify the gasification and consumption behavior of unburnt char ascend
ing in the coke packed bed in the lower part of the blast furnace, char rea
ction-consumption model has been newly developed considering the average re
sidence time and co-gasification with coke particles, The chemical reaction
rate constant has been determined based on the high temperature experiment
s on the char injection into the coke packed bed.
From the analyses using this model, the following results were obtained.
(1) The mean ascending velocity of char particles with the diameter of 20 m
um was approximately 0.3 m/s, and it was smaller than the actual gas veloci
ty by one order of magnitude, suggesting the char particles had fairly long
residence time in the blast furnace.
(2) The consumption rate of char became lower with the increase in the soli
d-gas loading ratio. This was considered to be caused by the higher ascendi
ng velocity which resulted from the successive renewal of stagnant particle
s in the packed bed by supplied char particles.
(3) According to the examination of char consumption behavior along the bla
st furnace height, char discharge rate from the top of the thermal reserve
zone could be reduced considerably by decreasing char exhaust rate from the
raceway. This phenomenon resulted from the increase in the consumption rat
e throughout the height, due to the decrease in the solid-gas loading ratio
. Therefore, to suppress the char exhaustion from the top, it was necessary
to improve the combustion efficiency in the raceway at higher injection ra
te of pulverized coal.