Real Time Monitoring of coal composition in closed systems for fast process control
RemoCoal project abstract
Nowadays for competitive hot metal production at a Blast furnace it is necessary to realize a high pulverised coal (PC) injection rate at a minimised coke rate. But actually there is a lack of real time analytical technologies to obtain reliable short time information of the actual composition of pulverized coal blend which is injected into the blast furnace (BF). A real time analysis of the pulverised coal blend opens up the opportunity to detect unexpected or prompt deviation in coal blend composition. It enables to run an optimized total BF fuel rate, a reduction of fuel cost for hot metal production and subsequently decreasing CO2 emissions.
Within the project the Pulsed Fast and Thermal Neutron Analysis (PFTNA) technology designed as borehole logging tool will be modified and applied in a closed silo of a pulverized coal injection (PCI) system. BF trials for real-time analysis of coal composition to adjust the coal injection rate near time will be performed.
The PFTNA-technique takes advantage of a switchable pulsed neutron generator for emission of fast and thermal neutrons and a gamma ray detector which record the characteristic gamma photons generated by interaction of the emitted neutrons with the nuclei of the surrounding coal material. It delivers characteristic spectra as basis for determination of the PC composition. |
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Additional the real time spectra will be processed by fingerprint analysis software (pattern recognition). The analysis is based on statistical data evaluation of the gamma spectra and delivers the operator principle parameter of the PC for Blast furnace optimization.
The involved Partners in the research project are:
VDEh – Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH | ![]() ![]() |
Sodern | ![]() |
Malvern Panalytical GmbH | ![]() |
thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG | ![]() |
This project receives funding from the Research Fund for Coal and Steel under grant agreement No. 754 200
Remocoal objectives
The main objective of this project is to demonstrate the high benefit of the real time analysis of coal composition for industrial application in better adjusting/controlling the pulverised coal injection rate and improve the production process.
The implementation of the PFTNA technology and the finger print analysis software enables to:
The new technology shall be demonstrated at the pulverized coal injection plant of a BF at tk SE. Finally, a concept will be set up for the implementation of the PFTNA technology and the real-time data evaluation at European blast furnaces.
Remocoal research approach
The development of the online monitoring systems in RemoCoal will be achieved in four major steps. An overview of the concept is illustrated in the following figure:
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