Tata Steel has initiated trial for continuous injection of coal bed methane (CBM) gas in one of the blast furnaces at its Jamshedpur Works, making it the first steel company in the world to inject CBM in blast furnace.
The process is expected to reduce coke rate by 10 kg/thm, which will be equivalent to reducing 33 kg of carbondioxide per tonne of crude steel. The trial will take place over the next few weeks.
The technology, design, and development of the entire system at blast furnace for facilitating CBM injection was done by the in-house team of Tata Steel.
‘Help reduce emissions’
Uttam Singh, Vice President, Iron making, Tata Steel said the initiative will provide useful insights into blast furnace operation with hydrogen-based injectants and help reduce emissions.
This trial will help in quantification of the reduction in coke rate used in the blast furnace and its impact on productivity. These insights will be used to design a framework for future sustainable operations of blast furnaces with greener fuels containing more hydrogen. CBM primarily contains 98 per cent of methane along with trace amounts of other gases, extracted from underground coal reservoirs.