Particle-scale modelling of injected hydrogen and coke co-combustion in the raceway of an ironmaking blast furnace

Hydrogen is an environmentally friendly fuel that does not produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Its applications have attracted significant attention from many industries, especially the ironmaking industry, which consumes massive amounts of fossil energy. The injection of hydrogen into a blast furnace (BF) is one of the most promising low-carbon ironmaking routines. In this study, an experimentally validated CFD-DEM model is adopted to investigate the dynamics, microstructure and thermochemical behaviours in the raceway of a BF with hydrogen injection operations (HIOs), which include raceway evolution, force distribution and the co-combustion characteristics of hydrogen and coke. Some significant features are obtained through comparison analyses between HIOs and air injection operations (AIOs). In particular, the effects of the hydrogen injection concentration on the raceway size, gas temperature and components are studied. The simulation results show that a smaller raceway is formed under HIOs in comparison with that of AIOs. In addition, the gas temperature is higher near the tuyere but lower along the tuyere axis, and the oxygen consumption is larger and produces more CO. As the hydrogen injection concentration increases: (i) the raceway size and gas temperature decrease; (ii) the CO is generated at the early stage and the maximum CO₂ concentration moves to inlet direction along the tuyere axis. The results provide new insights into the fundamental understanding of low-carbon ironmaking BF technology.