Investigation on the application of reformed coke oven gas in direct reduction iron production with a mathematical model

To investigate the application of reformed coke oven gas (COG) in producing the direct reduction iron (DRI), we simulated a countercurrent gas solid moving bed reactor in which the iron ore pellet was reduced by reformed COG. An ordinary differential equation (ODE) was set based on the unreacted shrinking core model considering both mass and energy balances of the reactor. The concentration and temperature profiles of all species within the reactor were obtained by solving the ODE system. The solid conversion and gas utilization were studied by changing gas flow rate, solid flow rate, reactor length, and the ratio of O/CH4 to guide the practical application of COG in DRI production. Model results showed that COG was suitable for the DRI production. In order to meet the requirement of the industrial production, the minimum gas flow rate was set as 130,000 Nm3/h, and the maximum production was 90 t/h. The reactor length and the mole ratio x(O): x(CH4) were depended on the actual industrial situations.