SUCCESSFUL UPGRADE OF THE PULVERISED COAL

INJECTION FACILITY AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT,

BELGIUM1
Alain Daelman2
Frederik Van De Velde 3
Pierre Mahowald4
Ben Muller5

Abstract
ArcelorMittal Gent is a maritime steel production facility and the furthermost
integrated plant in the ArcelorMittal Group. Located in Belgium, Western Europe, AM
Gent is employing 4.700 people with an annual production of 5 million tonnes of flat
steel products for the automotive sector and for high-quality applications. Since June
2006 the steel production facility has been part of ArcelorMittal, the world's leading
steel and mining company. ArcelorMittal is active in 60 countries and employs about
245.000 people worldwide. Nowadays AM Gent operates two Blast Furnaces
providing a yearly hot metal production of 2.13 million tons for BF A and 1.95 million
tons for BF B in 2012. These results have been achieved in combination with
pulverised coal injection rates of up to 235 kg/tHM resulting in coarse coke rates of
down to 210 kg/tHM. The technology to inject pulverised coal into both Blast Furnaces
at Gent was initially introduced in 1987. The original design capacity of the grinding
and drying plants as well as of the two pulverised coal injection facilities were
determined to 30 t/h each. Nevertheless, pulverised coal preparation and injection
capacities have continuously been upgraded ever since. Between 2008 and 2012 a
third GAD plant was installed while implementing significant upgrades to the PCI
system, thus aiming for injection rates up to 70 t/h for each Blast Furnace. This was
achieved by upgrading the existing conveying hoppers, adding new conveying lines,
replacing the injection lines and finally upgrading the complete system from static to
dynamic distribution.
Key words: Pulverised coal injection; Dynamic distribution; Plant upgrade; Individual
flow control.

1
Technical contribution to the 43rd Ironmaking and Raw Materials Seminar, 12h Brazilian Symposium
on Iron Ore and 1st Brazilian Symposium on Agglomeration of Iron Ore, September 1st to 4th, 2013,
Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
2
Civil engineer in metallurgy, Support Manager Process, ArcelorMittal Gent, Gent, Belgium.
3
Civil engineer in mechanics, Head of Blast Furnaces and Sinter Plants, ArcelorMittal Gent, Gent,
Belgium.
4
Dipl.-Ing. TH Aachen, Head of Injection Technology, Paul Wurth S.A., Luxemburg, Luxemburg.
5
Dipl.-Ing. TH Aachen, Head of Injection Technology, Paul Wurth S.A., Luxemburg, Luxemburg.
1 INTRODUCTION

Aiming for a continuous improvement in Blast furnace operation and efficiency,

permanent considerations have been made in order to upgrade and modernise the
pulverised coal injection (PCI) systems installed at ArcelorMittal Gent. The most
previous upgrade provided by Paul Wurth S.A. included state-of-the-art technology
allowing injection rates of about 235 kg/tHM on both Blast Furnaces. One of the key
factors resulting in this success was the replacement of the existing static distribution
system in favour to a dynamic distribution comprising a Cabloc flow meter in
combination with a GRITZKO® coal flow control valve in each individual injection line.
The entire set of upgrades was executed during blast furnace operation which
consequently led to a very tight time schedule.

1.1 History of PCI at AM Gent

AM Gent initially introduced PCI technology on BF A and BF B in 1987 in

collaboration with Paul Wurth. Frequent upgrades and modernisation of the entire
plants did finally lead to actual injection rates of more than 235 kg/tHM on both Blast
Furnaces. The table below briefly summarizes the major milestones of PCI history at
AM Gent.

Table 1. Historical overview of the PCI installation

Installation of two Paul Wurth PCI plants with two grinding and drying (GAD)
1986
facilities - Design capacity: 30 t/h each
1987 Start of PCI on BF A and BF B

Capacity upgrade of the GAD installations towards 56 t/h by increasing motor

power and modifying the louvre rings of the vertical roller mills (Loesche)
1995-2003
Increase of storage capacity by installing a third pulverised coal storage bin
feeding the existing storage bins for BF A and BF B

2008 Installation of a second raw coal storage bin to allow coal blending

Capacity upgrade of conveying and injection rates to 70 t/h on both Blast

Furnaces by
- installing a second, larger conveying line
- installing new injection lines
- upgrading the PCI facilities from static to dynamic distribution
2008-2012
- upgrading the existing conveying hoppers by installing new fluidising
compartments
- upgrading the global flow control by installing Cabloc flow meters and a
GRITZKO® flow control valve in the conveying lines
- installation of a third GAD plant
1.2 Blast Furnace Key Data

Table 2. Design features of BF A & BF B

BF A BF B
Relining June 2003 Dec 2001
Hearth diameter (m) 11,1 10,5
Inner volume (m³) 2.931 2.634
Working volume (m³) 2.550 2.347
Hearth volume (m³) 715 508
Hearth volume / Working volume 0,28 0,22
Number of tuyeres 28 27
Tapholes / Taphole angle 2 / 15°
Max. blast temperature (°C) 1.200
Charging equipment Skip / Paul Wurth Bell-Less Top®
Injection medium Pulverised coal
Hot blast pressure / Top pressure max. 3,2 bar g / 1,6 bar g

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS: DESCRIPTION OF THE MOST RECENT

MODIFICATIONS

The time schedule below shows the major upgrades with the corresponding
commissioning periods carried out during the most recent PCI upgrade phase from
2008 to 2012.

Table 3. Time schedule

Realisation of commissioning
Second Conveying Line PCI BF A April 2008
Second Conveying Line PCI BF B January 2008
New Injection Lines September 2010 – November 2010
New Distribution tower on PCI BF A December 2010
New Injection Lines October 2010 – January 2011
New Distribution tower on PCI BF B February 2011
Upgrade of Conveying Hoppers for PCI BF A April 2012
Upgrade of Conveying Hoppers for PCI BF B February 2012

The principle flow sheet below shows the actual plant configuration for raw coal
handling, GAD as well as the PCI facilities.
 3 Raw Coal Bins
3 x 150 m3

from
Raw Coal Storage 3 Coal Grinding Lines
3 x 60 t/h

3 Pulverised Coal
Storage Bins
3
3 x 650 m

3 Conveying Hoppers 3 Conveying Hoppers

3 x 30 m3 3 x 30 m3

BF B BF A

Figure 1. System Overview.

Table 4. Key Data of PCI for BF A & BF B

BF A BF B
Design Capacity 70 t/h 70 t/h
Conveying Hoppers 3 3
Nitrogen recovery
Special Features Scalping devices
Dynamic distribution
Transport gas Nitrogen
Fluidising chambers DN 700 DN 700
DN 80 DN 80
Conveying lines
DN 125 DN 125
Control is performed by means of Cabloc flow
Global Injection flow rate control
meter and a GRITZKO® flow control valve
Injection lines DN25 / 32 DN25 / 32
Static splitter with dynamic distribution:
Equal distribution is obtained by means of a
Distribution principle Cabloc flow meter and a GRITZKO® flow control
valve in serial installation in combination with a
closed loop control in each injection line
Accuracy of equal distribution of the
global injection flow rate onto the ± 2,5 %
injection lines
DN 80 => 45 t/h DN 80 => 45 t/h
Injection capacity
DN 125 => 70 t/h DN 125 => 70 t/h
Nitrogen consumption [Nm³ / tPCI]
50-55 50-55
(with nitrogen recovery)
 Nitrogen

N2 Recovery
PC PC PC

Conveying
Hoppers

WT WT WT
FC FY
2nd
Conveying
Line
FT

FC FY
FC
Control FT
FY FT Equipment
Individual
Static
Fluidising Flow Rate Injection
Pressurizing Global Splitter
Compartment Closed Loop
Gas Vessel Flow Rate Lines
Scalping Control
Closed Loop
Devices Control
Figure 2. Conveying and Injection Plant.

The following chapter describes the different upgrades.

2.1 Second Conveying Line from the Conveying Hoppers to the Distribution
Area

A new, bigger diameter conveying line from the conveying hoppers to the distribution
tower has been installed in parallel to the existing conveying line, thus in order to
increase conveying flow rate capacity.

2.2 New Injection Lines from the Distribution Area to the Blast Furnace

The entire set of injection lines has been replaced to provide for higher injection rates
requiring injection piping of larger inner diameter. Using the dynamic distribution
principle the design of the injection lines is essentially simplified since the need for
injection lines of equal lengths is not existent anymore. Flow resistances inside the
injection lines are roughly equalised by increasing the inner pipe diameter at different
locations. The quality requirements related to the injection line design, routing,
fabrication and installation are comparable to those applicable for common piping.

Cooling /
Flushing

TT

PIT

GRITZKO® Cabloc® Lance

flow control valve flow meter CAM
assembly

Static
Splitter
Figure 3. Injection Lines.
The injection lines have been replaced one by one during regular blast furnace
operation.
2.3 New Distribution Device

A completely pre-assembled rack with the static splitter, the GRITZKO® flow control
valves, the Cabloc flow meters and other process valves was shipped to the site by
truck. Prior to that, the rack was completely assembled and tested in the workshop to
avoid unexpected problems during commissioning, thus since time schedule for the
complete transformation was tight. Due to the fact that the transition phase from the
old to the new coal injection system asked for ‘All coke blast furnace operation’, the
aim was to achieve the shortest possible shutdown time of the Pulverised Coal
Injection Plant, thus resulting in an initial schedule for changeover of less than one
week. Tasks to be executed included the entire removal of the former distribution
equipment as well as the installation and connection of the new distribution rack,
pressure testing and electrical commissioning of the new installation.
Re-commissioning of the BF A PCI distribution system took 150 hours in total. Fast
subsequent progress in hot commissioning activities resulted in injection rates of
160 kgPCI/tHM after only 3 days. Based on the experience gained at BF A, the total
downtime of the BF B PCI was reduced to 93 hours and allowed an injection rate of
180 kgPCI/tHM only 3 days later.

Figure 4. Pre-assembled rack.

2.4 Upgrade from Static to Dynamic Distribution

A static distribution system usually guarantees an equal distribution to an extent of

maximum ± 5 %. Meanwhile the dynamic distribution system provides a guaranteed
distribution accuracy of ± 2,5%.
The dynamic distribution system can also intentionally be set up to a non-uniform and
non-equal distribution of coal to the blast furnace tuyeres. This effect can be useful
for injection lances in the proximity of a tap hole, which might ask for a different heat
input in this area. This can be achieved by applying different multiplication factors to
the individual injection line set points.
A dynamic distribution system permanently monitors the coal flow distribution
accuracy. An active closed-loop control balances any deviation (e.g. due to coal
deposits in the injection lines) and automatically adjusts the position of the
GRITZKO® coal flow control valve.
Another benefit of the dynamic distribution system is the possible reduction of
nitrogen consumption which is based on the reduced pressure drop over the
GRITZKO® valve versus the otherwise installed coal tuyere. The GRITZKO® opening
position is always adapted to the actual coal flow rate providing a constant pressure
drop, which cannot be realised by means of static coal tuyeres.

2.5 GRITZKO® Flow Control Valves

The effectiveness of the control system largely depends on the installed flow control
valves. In this project, Paul Wurth provided the heavy duty GRITZKO® valve design
which has already been used in many other PCI facilities around the world. These
special application valves with hard metal inserts are designed to withstand the
abrasive pulverised coal flow. The opening position of the flow control valve can be
varied by the control system in a large range. By rotating the metering segment, the
opening position of the valve can be set from nearly closed to fully open. The
conveying hopper pressure is automatically adapted in order to operate all the
GRITZKO® valves (in the conveying line and the injection lines) in their optimal
control range.

Figure 5. GRITZKO® flow control valve installed in the Conveying Line.

In case of eventual plugging of a GRITZKO® flow control valve installed in an

individual injection line, the plug will simply be removed by completely opening the
valve for a few seconds. The subsequently increased coal flow will convey the
particle causing the plug to the Blast Furnace without interrupting coal injection in the
concerned injection line. This consequently reduces the down times of the individual
injection lines and thus the nitrogen consumption required for flushing and cooling
the injection lances during these down times.

2.6 Global Injection Flow Rate Control in the PCI Plant

The control of the global pulverised coal flow rate transported to the Blast Furnace is
performed by means of a Cabloc flow meter and a GRITZKO® flow control valve
installed in the first section of the conveying line. The flow meter and the flow control
valve are backed up by the weighing systems and the pressure control equipment of
the conveying hoppers.

2.7 Upgraded Fluidising Compartments

When increasing the injection rates, the injection time per conveying hopper batch
will automatically be reduced. Thus the preparation time (sum of depressurising,
filling and pressurising sequences) of the hoppers has also to be reduced accordingly
in order to match the injection time. Therefore, new fluidising compartments were
installed with additional pressurising gas nozzles in order to reduce the conveying
hopper pressurising time.
Furthermore, the new design improves fluidisation of the pulverised coal and thus
guarantees a smooth and stable pneumatic transport. An additional benefit is the
improved changeover from one conveying hopper to the next one with nearly no
fluctuations in the conveying line.

Pressure Equalising
Ring for N2 Recovery

Pressurising Ring for

Pressurising Gas

Connection to
Conveying Line

Pressurising Nozzle
with Sinter Metal Insert

Fluidisation through
Sintered Metal Insert
Figure 6. New Fluidising Compartment.

2.8 Modified Scalping Devices

To increase the availability of the injection lines, so called scalping devices have
been installed downstream of each fluidising compartment and upstream of the
common section of the conveying line. The pulverised coal leaving the fluidising
compartment passes a scalping plate where the coarse material is trapped and
removed from the pulverised coal. The scalping device’s aperture is defined by the
smallest section in the injection line in order to reduce the risk of clogging.
The scalping devices are equipped with differential pressure measurements to
monitor the level of possible clogging. If requested by the control system or the
operator, the automatic back-flushing sequence will be launched after the completion
of the injection cycle of a particular conveying hopper. The flushing gas is directed
into a cyclone where it is separated from the coarse material. The coarse material
falls by gravity into a container, whereas the nitrogen will be returned to the
pulverised coal storage bin.
to
Pulverised Coal
Storage Bin

Conveying
Hopper

Scalping Cyclone
Nitrogen
Device for flushing

Conveying line
∆p

Fluidising
Compartment

Coarse Material
Container
Figure 7. Scalping device.

This simple, cost-effective and proven system significantly reduces the risk of
clogging phenomena in the injection lines. Compared to vibrating screens, scalping
devices only require reduced space for installation, lower investment costs and
significantly less maintenance. Furthermore, considerably smaller amounts of
oversize material are to be expected due to the openings in a scalping device being
significantly larger than the mesh of vibrating screens.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

By upgrading the plant from static to dynamic distribution, three major improvements
have been achieved.

3.1 Higher Availability of the Injection Lines

Due to the fact that the GRITZKO® flow control valves show a significantly lower risk
of clogging compared to static distribution devices, availability of the individual
Injection Lines has considerably been improved. Figure 8 and 9 illustrate the
differences in injection line availability.
Figure 8 shows the comparison between the upgraded PCI of BF A with the former
PCI system of BF B for a period of 4 days.
Figure 8. Comparison of lances in services between BF A (red line - new installation) and BF B (green
line - old installation), number of lances on PCI hourly average.

The same phenomenon can be seen in figure 9, indicating the number of alarms
generated by an injection line which switched from coal injection to nitrogen
purging/cooling mode due to no coal flow detection. This number has considerably
been reduced after the upgrades, especially when taking into account that the
remaining alarms are mainly due to a preventive weekly change of all PCI lances or
due to BF (maintenance) stops.

AM Gent : BFA & BFB 
Alarm messages before and after PCI upgrade
BFA BFB
1700
1600
Number of alarms (~lances on cooling)

1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800 upgrade BFA
700
upgrade BFB
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Oct‐10

Jan‐11

Mar‐11

May‐11

Jul‐11

Oct‐11

Jan‐12

Mar‐12

May‐12

Jul‐12

Oct‐12

Jan‐13

Mar‐13
Sep‐10

Nov‐10
Dec‐10

Feb‐11

Apr‐11

Jun‐11

Aug‐11
Sep‐11

Nov‐11
Dec‐11

Feb‐12

Apr‐12

Jun‐12

Aug‐12
Sep‐12

Nov‐12
Dec‐12

Feb‐13

Apr‐13

Figure 9. Number of Alarm messages before and after PCI upgrade (monthly total).
As a result, the operator of the installation benefits from:
 reduced down-times of the individual injection lines and virtually no interrupt of
coal supply to the different hot blast tuyeres (positive influence on BF
behaviour);
 reduced nitrogen consumption due to less purging / cooling;
 reduced manual intervention from operators.

3.2 Improved Accuracy on Equal Distribution and Global Flow

Figure 10 shows all injection lines in operation with the corresponding actual flow
rates. The average deviation shows values virtually always below 1%, the
guaranteed value being 2,5%. These results underline the perfect control
characteristics of the GRITZKO® valves in combination with the Cabloc flow meters
and the appropriate control loops implemented in the automation system.

AM Gent BFB
Equal Distribution of the Global Flow onto the Injection Lines
Average Deviation

2000 5.0 %
Individual Coal Flow Rate (kg/h)

1950 4.5 %

1900 4.0 %

1850 3.5 %

1800 3.0 %

1750 2.5 %

1700 2.0 %

Average Deviation (%)
1650 1.5 %

1600 1.0 %

1550 0.5 %

1500 0.0 %
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Time (s)

Figure 10. Equal Distribution of the Global Flow onto the Injection Lines.

The same can be stated for the comparison between the global coal flow rate set
point and the related process value, as shown in Figure 11.
 AM Gent BFA 
Difference between set point and measured value of PCI flow (kg/h)
%deltaSP‐MF Measured PCI flow Set Point PCI flow
5.00 80000
4.50
4.00 75000
3.50
3.00 70000
2.50

PCI flow (kg/h)
2.00 65000
%deviation

1.50
1.00 60000
0.50
0.00 55000
‐0.50
‐1.00 50000
‐1.50
‐2.00 45000
‐2.50
‐3.00 40000
16/06/2013 14:24

16/06/2013 19:12

17/06/2013 00:00

17/06/2013 04:48

17/06/2013 09:36

17/06/2013 14:24

17/06/2013 19:12

18/06/2013 00:00

18/06/2013 04:48

18/06/2013 09:36

18/06/2013 14:24

18/06/2013 19:12

19/06/2013 00:00

19/06/2013 04:48

19/06/2013 09:36

19/06/2013 14:24

19/06/2013 19:12
Figure 11. PCI flow comparison between set point and measured value.

3.3 Higher Injection Rates Due to Dynamic Distribution

Immediately after upgrading the PCI plants, AM Gent increased the pulverised coal
injection rates on both Blast Furnaces towards the design capacities. As illustrated in
figure 12, levels up to 234 kg/tHM have been reached on monthly average, without
giving in on total RAR.
 AM Gent BFA : monthly average RAR
BFA dry nut coke BFA Dry BF cokes BFA dry PCI
380 250
370 240
kg/tHM coarse BF coke; nut coke

360 230
350
340 220
330 210
320 200

PCI kg/tHM
310 190
300 180
290
280 170
270 160
260 150
250 140
240 upgrade PCI tower
upgrade mixing  130
230
220 chambers 120
210 110
200 100
201011
201012
201101
201102
201103
201104
201105
201106
201107
201108
201109
201110
201111
201112
201201
201202
201203
201204
201205
201206
201207
201208
201209
201210
201211
201212
201301
201302
201303
201304
201305
YYYYMM

AM Gent BFB : monthly average RAR
BFB dry nut coke BFB Dry BF cokes BFB dry PCI
380 250
kg/tHM coarse BF coke; nut coke

370 240
360 230
350 220
340
330 210
320 200

PCI kg/tHM
310 190
300 180
290 170
280
270 160
260 150
250 140
240 upgrade mixing  130
230 upgrade PCI tower 120
220 chambers
210 110
200 100
201011
201012
201101
201102
201103
201104
201105
201106
201107
201108
201109
201110
201111
201112
201201
201202
201203
201204
201205
201206
201207
201208
201209
201210
201211
201212
201301
201302
201303
201304
201305

YYYYMM
Figure 12. AM Gent BF A and BF B PCI rate, BF coke rate (monthly average).

4 CONCLUSION / SUMMARY

The dynamic distribution proved again to be one of the keys for high efficient blast
furnace operation. High availability as well as accuracy on equal distribution below
± 2.5 % are only two of the advantages linked to the supplied Paul Wurth technology.
In combination with dense phase conveying with low fluctuations and very accurate
global flow control, high PCI injection rates above 220 kg/tHM become state-of-the-art
on new, as well as on existing Blast Furnaces.
Successfully upgrading PCI plants demand from the plant operators as well as from
the technology supplier deep understanding of the technology, accurate time
scheduling as well as a careful preparation of all the different project steps. At the
end the operational and financial results easily justify the investment and confirm the
decision for continuously improving PCI facilities.