Towards more efficient control of the ironmaking blast furnace: modelling gaseous reduction of iron ores in H₂-N₂ atmosphere

The fraction of hydrogen (H₂) in the blast furnace (BF) shaft gas containing a notable portion of nitrogen (N₂) is expected to increase. For more efficient control of the BF, it is therefore desirable to conduct more rigorous studies on gaseous reduction of iron ores especially in H₂-N₂ atmosphere. In this paper, an unreacted shrinking core model (USCM) with multicomponent gas diffusion for iron ore reduction in H₂-N₂ atmosphere is developed. The resultant nonlinear equations are solved using the 4th order Runge-Kutta method. The present model and the original USCM are compared based on a series of pertinent experimental data.