Open Access Conference Proceedings

The blast furnace process can be negatively affected by a number of harmful elements. These may interfere with the course of the technological process, but can also increase production costs. Harmful elements are contained in the blast furnace's charge and they disrupt chemical, physical, and also the thermal processes in the production of iron. Changes in the above processes may produce a range of effects from changes in the flow of gases to problems with a decrease of the charge or excessive heating or cooling of the hearth. In the ideal process, we can remove harmful elements into the slag. But it remains crucial to monitor and reduce the contents of negative elements already in input raw materials. Thus, their continuous circulation in the blast furnace is limited. Alkali carbonates represent a large group of harmful substances. They can re-enter the process and negatively affect the technological as well as economic and operational indicators of the blast furnace process. Alkalis may enter the process, for example, in the form of silicates or carbonates. This article aims to analyse the content of Na2O compounds entering the blast furnace process and the possibility of reducing their negative consequences. The contents of the compounds and their effects were monitored for a long term scale in the context of the research.

Keywords: blast furnace, iron making process, production costs, alkali, input raw materials, harmful substances

© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.