BOF gas cleaning system upgrades

for increased efficiency and

off-gas quality
Danieli Linz Technology, specialists in BOF steelmaking and Danieli Corus, one of the market
leaders in blast furnace technology, have teamed up to accelerate developments in gas cleaning
for BOF plants. A design comprising an improved scrubber based on that widely applied in the
blast furnace, plus an improved mist eliminator, offers significant advantages over conventional
designs is described.

Authors: Matthias Meyn, Peter Klut and Ruud Herold

Danieli Corus, The Netherlands

D anieli entered the steel converter business in 2011

with the inception of a new, dedicated business unit,
Danieli Linz. Activities ramped up rapidly in this highly
enable energy recovery as well as collection and recycling
of dust.
For dust removal, either a wet or a dry type process is
demanding and conservative area of steelmaking. applied. Currently, more than 90% of the de-dusting
Danieli Corus is already very successful in blast furnace systems deployed around the world are of the wet type.
ironmaking as well as niche markets for oxygen steelmaking. Dry systems employ electrostatic precipitators that can
For instance, it is market leader in the supply of sublance achieve a dust content below 10mg/Nm3. In wet systems,
systems, together with one of the most advanced level the gas is cleaned in venturi scrubbers followed by a mist
2 systems. With the integration of Danieli Linz into the eliminator, resulting in dust content below 20mg/Nm3.
Danieli Corus group, a great opportunity has emerged for However, ESPs have a large footprint and operational
further developing equipment for oxygen steelmaking. disadvantages connected to preventing explosions.
Additionally, this is the first time that engineers of an The pressure drop required for gas cleaning is generated
equipment supplier of two disciplines (ironmaking and by an induced draft fan (IDF), which transports the gas
steelmaking) are working together in a single location. through the cooling and cleaning processes. Typically,
This opens up completely new opportunities for the joint the cleaned gas with high calorific value (CO >30vol%) is
development of tools and software for optimising both stored in a gasholder before further processing, while the
blast furnace and converter processes in terms of cost and cleaned gas with low calorific value is flared.
resource savings. In this article, the focus is on the wet-type cleaning
An article on BOF design, also from this business unit, is systems. The first process step is quenching the mixture of
on page 36. gas and dust with water, primarily to reduce the temperature,
In the area of converter off-gas capture, cooling and although it also removes the coarser dust particles from
cleaning, current company activities are focused on the gas and entrains these in the water system. Finer dust
maximising the hood design coverage at a minimum particles remain in the gas stream. In the second stage, the
maintenance requirement. The completed redevelopment gas stream is forced through a ‘narrow gap’ scrubber where
of off-gas scrubber and mist eliminator designs are the fine dust particles become entrained in the scrubbing
discussed in this article. water stream. The collected waste water streams from both
stages are sent to thickener/flocculation tanks for settling
WASTE GAS CLEANING – the BACKGROUND and solids removal [1-3].
As BOF steelmaking is a batch process, the conditions
and composition of the gas produced vary from the start SCRUBBER DESIGN –
to the end of a blow. When oxygen is blown, large VENTURI-BASED SCRUBBERS
amounts of high temperature (~1,750°C), dust-laden Currently the venturi-based scrubber most commonly
(70-200g/Nm3) gas are produced. This gas has to be used in BOF gas cleaning is the ‘flap venturi’ scrubber,
MILLENNIUM STEEL 2019

cooled and cleaned (down to a dust level below 20mg/ commonly known as the Baumco™ type. A typical example
Nm3) before further processing. Process equipment is is shown in Figure 1 showing the key stages. The flaps are
installed above and alongside the converter mouth to positioned in the adjustable throats.

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 IRONMAKING AND STEELMAKING

Typical issues with Flap Venturi scrubbers

Although flap venturi scrubbers are widely used, some
disadvantages can be identified, including:
` Less efficient mixing of the gas and water flows in
certain areas in the system, resulting in less efficient
scrubbing
` Internal blockages can occur because dust deposits in
internal channels and the resulting increase in pressure
drop is detrimental to system performance
` The venturi throat is of a rather complicated design,
with a substantial number of moveable parts
` Blockages of the nozzles used for water injection in the
venturi throat occur, which results in a loss of scrubber
efficiency; consequently, nozzles require regular
maintenance (see Figure 2a)
` Cleaning rakes are used to address the blockages,
but these are damaged frequently and need to be
replaced/repaired (see Figure 2b)
` Clogging of the scrubber outlet has a detrimental
effect on the efficiency of the quencher pumps and
accelerates pump wear
` Several internal 180° turns of the gas cause friction
losses that do not contribute to the cleaning
efficiency.

IMPROVED SCRUBBER DESIGN

Danieli Corus has identified and implemented an improved
design, called an RS Element scrubber, to address stricter
dust removal requirements and improve operational
efficiency and costs.
r Fig 1 Conventional gas cleaning scrubber
Scrubber structure An RS Element scrubber is a two-stage
single tower construction as illustrated in Figure 3. Stage 1 is
the pre-scrubbing/cooling section located in the upper half
of the scrubber vessel. It is an open design furnished with
centrally arranged non-clogging type spray nozzles. Stage
2, containing the RS Elements and RS Element sprays, is
located in the lower part of the scrubber vessel downstream
of the pre-scrubbing/cooling section. Water consumption
can be minimised by incorporating a water recycling system
which recirculates stage 2 water to the top spray nozzles r Fig 2 Examples of (a) blocked nozzle and (b) damaged cleaning
in stage 1. A hydraulic control system, which is used to rakes in flap venturi scrubbers
position the RS Cone Elements and (sometimes) the water
control valves, is also part of stage 2.
` A longer operating life since the design is more wear
RS Element scrubbers A recent development enabling resistant
greater dust removal, is the Annular Gap or RS Element ` Virtually maintenance-free, as proven in many blast
scrubber (RS = Ring Slit = Annular Gap). Figure 4 (a and b) furnace applications
shows the basic differences between the two types. ` Lower operational costs when compared to a Flap
RS Element scrubbers offer advantages that address Venturi Scrubber system with the same capital
MILLENNIUM STEEL 2019

many of the identified issues with Flap Venturi scrubbers: expenditure costs
` Optimised water and gas flow patterns resulting in a ` Straight flow pattern with minimal gas turns
more efficient design The RS Element scrubber contains an RS Element that a

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 IRONMAKING AND STEELMAKING

using highly wear and corrosion resistant materials.

The pressure drop between the inlet and outlet of the
RS Element predominantly determines the dust removal
capacity and is shown in Figure 5. The graph shows that in
order to achieve a gas dust content below 20mg/Nm3 a
pressure drop above 150mbar is required.

Water injection nozzles In the scrubber, the raw gas

coming from the converter is conditioned by contacting
it with water sprays coming from a series of nozzles
positioned in a vertical arrangement alongside the shell of
the scrubber, as shown in Figure 3. Each nozzle is installed
on a spray arm that goes through the scrubber shell to be
connected to the water supply. By contact with water the
gas is cooled and the majority of the dust is wetted, thus
enabling it to mix with the water.
Although robust, one of the areas enabling improvement
is in the water distribution system, ie, the number
and placement of the nozzles and spray lances. More
specifically, by improving the atomisation of the water
droplets, the available surface area of the water droplets
for contact with gas and dust particles will increase. This
r Fig 3 Schematic of RS Element scrubber can be achieved by employing a spiral type of spray head
compared to an open type, shown in Figure 6 (a and b),
distributed via three spray arms installed in a 2-3-2 pattern
at the same height (and only spraying downward).
The benefits of placing seven spray nozzles at one level
can be summarised as follows:
` The droplet size becomes much smaller, (eg, a reduction
of the sauter mean droplet diameter from 2,500µm for
the hollow cone spray to 1,250µm for the spiral spray
type) which accelerates evaporation
` An improvement in mixing and distribution of gas and
droplets
` The increased number of smaller droplets and their
improved distribution greatly improves the wetting of
particles
` Spiral type nozzles can withstand high dust loads and
saturated water flows

r Fig 4 (a) Annular gap scrubber (b) flap venturi scrubber As can be seen in Figure 3, spray arms are still distributed
over the column but the required number of entry points
is axially adjustable and forms an annular gap towards is reduced significantly. In the first layer, the aim is to
the conical outer shell. The water that is sprayed into pre-cool and saturate the gas with water. The aim of the
the collar zone at low gas velocity flows through the following two layers is wetting of the dust (to capture
guide pipe into the annular gap, maintaining a uniform coarser particles) and further cooling of the gas to
water distribution over the annular gap cross-section. Gas approximately 55-65°C.
and water are forced through the annular gap creating Apart from the advantages mentioned above, the use of
high turbulence and intensive interaction, thus, all gas spiral type spray nozzles offers some additional benefits:
streams and dust particulates are thoroughly wetted ` These nozzles are less susceptible to clogging than
MILLENNIUM STEEL 2019

to provide maximum gas cleaning. To obtain longevity, the open type: spiral spray nozzles were originally
the main parts of the RS Element, such as the conical designed for use in flue gas desulphurisation units for
outer shell and the male conical body, are manufactured the injection of saturated slurries in a gas stream a

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 ` The spray patterns will overlap, so improving overall
scrubber performance since the presence of areas with
less water coverage will become highly unlikely
` Application of multiple spray nozzles in the scrubbers
increases reliability compared to conventional scrubber
designs.

WATER REMOVAL
Before the cleaned gas and captured dust can be
efficiently used, as much of the water as possible used in
the scrubbing process must be removed. This is done in a
variety of ways:
` Initial droplet separation inside the scrubber – typically
sharp turns of gas flow/axial rotation
` External mechanical droplet separation – typically a
vertical axial mist eliminator
` Wet electrostatic precipitators – dropout and removal
on plates.
r Fig 5 Typical RS Element performance vs pressure drop
Most BOF shops use a mist eliminator, the most popular of
which is an axial cyclone type where the gas and droplets
are brought into a spinning motion with a number of guide
vanes, resulting in separation of the droplets from the BOF
gas. The axial cyclone type mist eliminator is suitable for
the removal of larger droplets but is less efficient in the
removal of the finer droplets.
Unfortunately, due to the pressure drop over the annular
gap element in this design, a large amount of fine droplets
is produced and it is estimated that the free moisture
content after the annular gap elements could be as high
as 250g/Nm3. In that respect, the axial mist eliminator
is doing quite well taking into account that the outlet
r Fig 6 (a) Open type and (b) spiral type spray nozzles free moisture content is in the range of 4-5g/Nm3 – an
efficiency of 99.6%.
Despite all of these techniques, large amounts of liquid
water are found at the ID fans, gas holder and the flare
stack. Some of this water originates from sprays used at
the ID fans and condensed water in the duct work but,
given the pollution found in the water drains, it is also
clear that the current mist eliminators do not work as
efficiently as they should, resulting in dust emissions at
the flare stack and the collection of dust laden water from
condensate traps.
The intense contact of dust and water in the Annular
Gap scrubber creates droplets that also contain dust. In
current designs, the remaining 5g/Nm3 of water droplets
after the mist eliminator will be carried towards the flare,
the gas holder and eventually the burners of the BOF gas
r Fig 7 Horizontal axial mist eliminator fired boilers. When BOF gas is burned this will create a
dust emission.
MILLENNIUM STEEL 2019

The BAT BREF report [4] shows that limits of

5-10mg/Nm3 can be achieved with a venturi type scrubber,
but it should be noted that these low values can only be

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 IRONMAKING AND STEELMAKING

obtained if the dust containing droplets can be removed

efficiently.
Due to the intermittent operation of converters, a gas
holder is a necessity to allow constant BOF gas flow to
the end consumers. However, due to the holdup time
in the gas holders, the dust-containing droplets will
settle inside the gas holder, creating deposits that need
to be cleaned regularly. The same applies for the water
collected in siphons from the gas supply lines to the
gas holder. The water and sludge removed need to be
collected and treated due to their chemical composition.

IMPROVED MIST ELIMINATOR DESIGN

In power generation and the oil and gas industries, a
droplet content of 5g/Nm3 is considered too high and so
a more efficient type of mist eliminator was developed.
This is capable of achieving a droplet content below r Fig 8 Improved design of mist eliminator
0.1g/Nm3. An example is shown in Figure 7.
Danieli Corus has teamed up with Sulzer, a leading
OEM for separation systems in the oil and gas industry,
to develop a mist eliminator based on this design which
is suitable for the removal of droplets from converter gas
downstream of the annular gap scrubber.

NEW MIST ELIMINATOR DESIGN

The newly developed mist eliminator [5] is based on a
three-step approach for droplet removal:
1. Shell SchoepentoeterTM at the inlet
2. Sulzer MellachevronTM mist eliminator
3. Sulzer KnitmeshTM & MellachevronTM r Fig 9 Working principles Knitmesh line-up

The first step of the design is the diverter inlet, the Shell
SchoepentoeterTM, that feeds and distributes the BOF washing can be set on a regular interval or can be set on a
gas into the column while removing a large portion of differential pressure measurement. The wash water will be
the coarse droplets. The second step consists of a vane drained together with the collected droplets.
type Chevron Mist Eliminator, the Sulzer MellachevronTM,
which consists of vertically positioned vanes that BENEFITS
separate droplets using their inertia. The finest droplets, As a result of the cooperation with Sulzer, there is now
which pass the Chevron Mist Eliminator, need to be a patented mist eliminator design capable of achieving
coagulated before they can be separated; the third step a droplet content below 0.1g/Nm3 in clean BOF gas,
of the removal process. This coagulation is achieved by which equates to a removal efficiency of 99.96%. It also
the Sulzer KnitmeshTM that is operated in a flooded mode, has a smaller footprint and similar CAPEX to conventional
creating a horizontal droplet flow. The larger droplets designs. This will lead to cleaner ducting, low dust
that are created are collected in another MellachevronTM emissions at the flare stack and BOF gas-fired boilers,
positioned after the KnitmeshTM. The droplets from trouble free ID fan operation and less maintenance and
all steps are collected at the bottom of the vessel and sludge arising at BOF gas holders.
returned to the wet scrubber. The design is shown in
Figure 8. The working principles of Knitmesh are shown ALTERNATIVE MIST ELIMINATOR
in Figure 9. CONFIGURATION
Where there a considerable distance between the scrubber
MILLENNIUM STEEL 2019

Mist eliminator cleaning A number of spray nozzles and the ID fan an alternative design is available whereby
will clean the surface of the MellachevronTM and KnitmeshTM droplet removal can be split into two separate units. These
parts of the mist eliminator to prevent clogging. This comprise a carryover mist eliminator near the scrubber a

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 IRONMAKING AND STEELMAKING

Mist eliminator Position Separation technique Liquid discharge

Carryover mist eliminator Next to SchoepentoeterTM Lower section
annular gap MellachevronTM scrubber
Condensate mist eliminator In front of ID fan MellachevronTM Condensate
KnitmeshTM & collection pit
MellachevronTM
r Table1 Split mist design elimination components

less stringent water quality requirements at improved

scrubbing performance including changes to the
water dispersion patterns and their distribution
throughout the scrubber tower. Application of special
internal coatings reduces clogging and abrasion.
` A new mist eliminator design with a higher efficiency
than the traditional axial type. Also, the application of
an advanced, multi-stage mist eliminator design with
proven track record in other industries is presented.
The effective droplet separation further reduces
particulate emissions and helps with operational
problems and damages of Induced Draft fans. The
elaborated design offers great advantages over
conventional axial droplet-separators. The application
of the improved mist eliminator that can lower the
droplet content in the BOF gas to below 0.1g/Nm3
will lead to cleaner ducting, low dust emissions at
the flare stack and BOF gas fired boilers, trouble free
ID fan operation and less maintenance and sludge
arising at BOF gas holders. MS
r Fig 10 New gas cleaning design
CONTACT: [email protected]

and a condensate mist eliminator near to the ID fan. This Matthias Meyn, Peter Klut and Ruud Herold are with
alternative line-up is summarised in Table 1. Danieli Corus, IJmuiden, The Netherlands
The condensate mist eliminator consists of a
MellachevronTM and a KnitmeshTM and lowers the droplet REFERENCES
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water wash will be required for the ID fan. Association, 24(10), 1974, 939-942
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as follows: Steel Times International, April 2010, 39-42
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on wet scrubbing technology widely applied and Delgado Sancho, BAT BREF Iron & Steel – JRC reference
proven in blast furnace ironmaking. The straight gas report, European Committee, Brussels, 2013
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unwanted pressure drop. Water injection through developments in dry and wet blast furnace gas cleaning
MILLENNIUM STEEL 2019

quick exchangeable spiral type nozzles allows for technology’, Millennium Steel India 2016, 31-35

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