Blast Furnace Operations With Injected Coal at Weirton

Coal has been used as an auxiliary blast furnace fuel on the Weirton No. 3 blast furnace. Serious tuyere failure problems have been encountered, and they must be overcome before coal injection will receive widespread application. Coal has been injected into the No. 3 blast furnace at rates up to 15% of total fuel requirement. If operating practice differences are neglected, the coal to coke replacement ratio at the 10% coal injection rate was 0.94 and at 15% coal injection rate was 1.19.