Metallurgist, Vol. 53, Nos.

7–8, 2009

BELL-LESS ROTARY CHARGING UNIT –

A PERFECT BURDEN LOADING TECHNOLOGY

B. Boranbaev,1 Y. Glazer,1 V. Vakulin,1

and A. Sirkar2

A performance record is given of blast furnaces at JSPL (BF-2) steel plant (Jindal, India) that were equipped
for the first time in the world with bell-less charging apparatuses with the rotary burden distributors
(BRCU). The peculiarity of the rotary principle of stock distribution in the furnace lies in the fact that burden
is stacked in the furnace top in a soft and multilayer manner. Due to that, a high grade of circular uniformity
is achieved and, at the same time, of the averaging of each batch of material under charging. More than two
years experience of BRCU performance on BF-2 at JSPL (India) has corroborated the benefits of the
apparatus as compared with the chute-type charging machines. The practice of using BRCU has shown that
the summary rate of fuel consumption is lower by 5.07–6.29% and specific productivity higher by
4.22–6.75% as compared with the performance indices of chargers with chutes. It is established that the
efficiency of rotary chargers would grow simultaneously with the increase in blast furnace volumes.
A simulating model is developed, enabling us to analyze and optimize the burden charging process, as
carried out with the help of BRCU.
Key words: charging, rotary distribution of burden, radial distribution, circular uniformity, bell-less rotary
charging unit (BRCU).

1.0. Description of BRCU

In August and October 2006 at JSPL (BF No.2) and JSW steel plants (Jindal Group, India) two green field 1681 m3
blast furnaces with the first bell-less rotary charging units (BRCU) were successfully put into service. The general view of
BRCU is shown in Fig.1. BRCU offers radically new potentialities. The advantages of BRCU are the following:
1.1. Soft dumping of burden upon the stock line in the furnace
As material is being charged with the help of a rotor, the flow of burden from the central discharge point would be
split into five equal parts, which are shaped into wide streams on the rotor vanes and then successively one after another are
softly poured upon the stock line surface. The kinetic energy of these streams is by far weaker than the energy of the mate-
rial stream coming from the big bell would have been and five times lower than the energy of the concentrated stream of
material coming from the chute, which would bring about deformations in the stock line surface, particularly so when iron
bearing material is loaded. As a result, thanks to the soft charging of burden from the rotor, there would be no forming of
excessively packed volumes of burden, thus deteriorating gas permeability. Besides, the profile of the preceding batches of
stock is not destroyed either, which makes it possible to provide better prognostics and modeling of the topography of the
layerwise stacking of burden.

1
Totem Co. Ltd., 16 3rd Mytischinskaya St., Block 60, Off. 619, 129626 Moscow, Russia.
2
Jindal Steel & Power Limited P.B. 16, Khasia Road, Raigarh, India.

Published in Metallurg, No. 7, pp. 35–40, July, 2009. Original article submitted June 24, 2009.

0026-0894/09/0708-0395 ©2009 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 395

 Fig. 1. The general view of BRCU.

1.2. High uniformity of the circular distribution of burden and averaging of the charged batches of stock
With the help of BRCU, material is stacked on the burden surface at one turn of the rotor in five fine layers; the num-
ber of them at that may be 30–50 in the case of both ringwise or spiral charging patterns. Owing to the multilayer stacking of
material, the latter becomes well averaged and its distribution in circumference becomes also very uniform. In the case of a
chute-type apparatus and ringwise pattern of charging, there will be only 1–4 layers at a time at each angular position of the
chute, and in the case of a spiral charging pattern, only one layer will be laid. Besides, while using chute-type apparatuses there
will be the problem of “rings closure.” If the heads and tails of rings of stock under charging do not meet, there will be partial
(not along a complete ring) stacking of layers, which would lead to nonuniformity in circular distribution of material.

1.3. Flexible control over radial distribution of material at the furnace top
The radial positioning of fine layers of material under charging on the burden surface is controlled by varying the
rotor spinning speed, with which the centrifugal force affecting the material is correlated. Therefore, the variations in ore/coke
ratios along the furnace radius would take place not by jumps and leaps, but smoothly, which creates a possibility to preset
the distribution of ore/coke ratios along the furnace radius within one or two to three batches. This would simplify substan-
tially the matter of optimizing the ore/coke ratio distribution along the furnace radius within one cycle. The rotation of the
rotor in reverse is used to charge material into the furnace central line zone.

396
 Fig. 2. Simulation model interface.

1.4. Faster rate of charging into the blast furnace

Material is charged into the furnace with the BRCU burden gate kept fully open, which makes the time of discharge
from the hopper 1.5–2 times shorter, as compared with BLT, wherein to reduce the circular nonuniformity of material dis-
tribution partial openness of the burden gate is used. Thank to the faster rate of charging, BRCU can be easily used in the
“catch-up” mode.

1.5. Central stream of burden

In BRCU, stock travels along one through route, along the central line of the apparatus, without deviating from the
moment of discharge from the conveyer or skip down to the rotor. This provides a uniform circular distribution of material
and reduces erosion of equipment along the track.

1.6. Design advantages

The height of BRCU makes it possible to install it on existing blast furnaces to replace two-bell apparatuses, without
modifications in main steel structures in the top and upper sections of the skip bridge.
The BRCU central gearbox consists of only one cylindrical gear pair to make the rotor turn at controlled speeds.
Material is discharged with the burden gates kept fully opened, which practically wards off their erosion. The minimized
number of sub-assemblies and mechanisms in BRCU (two burden gates, two gas-sealing valves, one gearbox) and the
absence of weighers for the transfer hopper make the design of the charger quite simple, as well as the automatic control sys-
tem, and enhances the dependability of the apparatus as a whole.

397
TABLE 1. Charging Pattern at JSPL

% of time of total duaration of discharging

Material
Ring 1 Ring 2 Ring 3 Ring 4 Ring 5 Ring 6

1. Coke 80 20
2. Ore 50 50
3. Coke 35 25 25 15
4. Ore 50 50
5. Coke 35 25 25 15
6. Ore 50 50
7. Coke 35 25 25 15
8. Ore 50 50

BRCU mechanisms are controlled and monitored, and burden material distributed, as desired, with the help of the
ACS “ROTOR,” which is integrated into the ACS of the blast furnace.

2.0. Control of charging system

To optimize the mode of charging, the operator can use a simulating model (hereinafter referred to as “SM”) for for-
mation and visualization of descending layers of burden, which has been developed on the basis of physical modeling and
such factors that may affect the radial distribution of stock as rotor speed, stock line height, type and grade of material, rates,
and stock line profile.
The interface of the simulating model is shown in Fig. 2. The diagrams depict the following: visualization of layer
position after discharging 4 batches (diagram 1); distribution of ore/coke ratio along the radius for this particular cycle (dia-
gram 2); radial distribution of coke along the furnace radius as it is loaded into the furnace top center on a flat stock line
surface (diagram 3); distribution of coke in the total volume of material in one cycle of charges (diagram 4); epure of the
material descending rates (diagram 5); conditions and parameters of the charging mode (diagrams 6, 7).
In that way, having set the mode of operation for the rotor and determined the conditions for laying material on the
surface of burden, SM would make it possible to obtain the structure of burden layer by layer in the furnace top and make
changes in the ore-bearing stock along the radius.
The distribution of material layers and ore/coke ratios along the radius, as depicted in Fig. 2, is related to the charg-
ing patterns (Table 1) used basically for blast furnace No. 2 at JSPL. The mode of charging is adjusted by the operators only
by redistributing coke in annular zones 2–5.
To make the model more practical, three nondimensional criteria of radial distribution in the given cycle of batches
have been formulated. These criteria, we believe, enable us to assess the impact of the burden charging parameters upon the
furnace performance and to optimize the performance of the charging apparatus. Below are there the ratios used to compute
the above-said criteria.
mean ore/coke ratio in annular zones 4–6
CDR1 = ;
mean ore/coke ratio in annular zones 1–3

mean ore/coke ratio in annular zones 5 and 6

CDR2 = ;
mean ore/coke ratio in annular zone 1 (center)

mean ore/coke ratio in annular zones 2–4

CDR3 = .
mean ore/coke ratio in annular zone 1 (center)

398
 Fig. 3. Examples of a two-portion charging system: a) charging system No. 1: CRD = 0.838, coke in center, 100% of
ore in 2nd ring; b) charging system No. 2: CRD = 1.740, coke in center, 100% of ore in 3rd ring; c) charging system
No. 3: CRD = 1.171, coke in center, up to 50% of ore in 2nd and 3rd ring.

To assess the degree of influence of the charging system, which is characterized by the radial distribution criterion
CRD1, upon the furnace performance, such indicators as CO utilization can be used as feedback parameters [3].
The suggested criteria [3] make it possible to quantify the asymmetry of distribution of ore/coke ratios in the radial
direction and to what degree peripheral (CRD1 and CRD2) and intermediate (CRD3) zones in the firnace have been charged
with ore-bearing material. These criteria can be used both in ordinary and automatic controls of the furnace charging process.
The majority of known charging systems for bell and chute-type apparatuses consist of a large number of stock por-
tions of materials in one cycle. Sometimes their number may reach 8 or more portions. In such a case, the task to optimize
the charging system becomes a multivariant task, which would be difficult to solve as there is no clear and definite feedback.
If BRCU is used, thanks to its merits it becomes possible to reduce the number of portions in a cycle to the minimum possi-
ble, i.e., two portions, thus reducing the task of charging system optimization to a mono-variant one.

399
TABLE 2. Comparative Analysis of Performance Indices from BF-2 at JSPL and BF-G at Tata Steel

Plant, furnace

Parameters Tata Steel, BF-G JSPL, BF-2

May 07 February 09 March 09 April 09

1. Productivity, tons/day 5476 3702.9 3667 3617.5

2. Downtime, % 0 2.57 3.26 2.94

3. Specific productivity, tons/m3·day 2.37 2.53 2.51 2.47

4. Coke rate (incl. coke nut), kg/ton 419 407.3 399.8 382.2
5. PCI rate, kg/ton 141 124 131.8 142.6
6. Total fuel rate, kg/ton 560 531.3 531.6 524.8
7. Carbon rate, kg/ton 477 438.4 439.4 433.5
8. Ore rate (dry), kg/ton 502 543 590 520
9. Sinter rate, kg/ton, 1042 1094 1060 1130
10. Quartzite rate, kg/ton 13 15 5.2 16.76
11. Fe in ore part of burden, % 58.97 57.54 58.46 57.47
12. Blast temperature, ºC 1136 1199 1195 1187
13. Top pressure, bar 1.54 0.95 0.89 0.87
14. Pressure differential, bar 1.63 1.59 1.75 1.76
15. O2 in blast, % 25.35 24.63 24.63 24.71

16. Blast moisture, g/m3 31 37.8 34.8 41.3

17. Slag yield, kg/ton 263 312 289.5 311
18. Top temperature, ºC no data 79 104 110
19. CO utilization rate, % 44.36 45.37 46.08 45.97
20. Si in hot metal, % 0.8 0.62 0.53 0.52
21. Slag chemistry, %
Al2O3 18.75 19.86 20.48 20
MgO 6.62 9.3 9.12 9
CaO/SiO2 0.99 1 1.02 0.99
22. Coke quality, %
CSR 65.01 64.72 64.57 64.6
M10 5.2 5.61 5.52 5.43
Ash 13.72 12.98 12.45 12.38
23. PCI quality, ash, % 10.41 9.5 9.83 9.73

Examples of two-portion cycle charging systems are given in Fig. 3. For clarity, the diagrams reflect the layers of
stock after four cycles of charging.

400
TABLE 3. Improvements of Basic Parameters of BF-2 in Comparison with BF-G (%)

February 09 March 09 April 09

1. Specific productivity +6.75 +5.91 +4.22

2. Coke rate –2.79 –4.58 –8.78
3. Total fuel rate –5.13 –5.07 –6.29
4. Carbon rate –8.09 –7.88 –9.12

In each of these systems, a portion of coke is loaded into the central zone only, while the preset distribution of
ore/coke ratios along the radius is achieved by varying the speed of the rotor as the ore/bearing material is being loaded. At
charging system No. 1 (CRD1 = 0.838), the peak of the ore/coke ratio will be in the zone of ring 1. The value of numerical
criterion CRD1 is less than 1.0, which means that ore/coke ratios in the axial zone and two adjacent zones are bigger than
those in the three peripheral zones.
If a portion of the ore-bearing stock shifts from ring 2 to ring 3 (system No. 2), the ore/coke ratio peak would shift
to ring 3. As it happens, CRD1 increases up to the value of 1.74. At that it would mean that the periphery of the furnace is
overloaded with ore-bearing material.
In system No. 3, a portion of ore-bearing stock is divided into two equal parts, which are loaded onto rings 2 and 3
in the two-ring mode of charging. In this system, the ridge of ore/coke/ ratios will be in ring 3 zone also, but the value of
CRD1 = 1.171 testifies to the fact that the periphery is less loaded.
The presented examples show possible algorithms for searching the optimum charging systems, retaining the prin-
ciple of consistency of charging mode for one burden component out of two (in the given examples the coke is always charged
first and to the axial zone only). The optimum of the distribution of ore/coke ratio along the radius is achieved by varying the
distribution of the second component only. The two-batch cycle charging system makes the task of optimizing the charging
system a mono-variant task, hence simpler and more comprehensible.

3.0. Industrial implementation of BRCU

The performance of a blast furnace with BRCU has been analyzed on the basis of data for February–April 2009 jux-
taposed with the performance data of blast furnace “G” at Tata Steel in May 2007, when that furnace demonstrated the best
results among the blast furnace community of India.
The analysis is based upon statistics from the plants for each specified calendar month. The chemistry of slag and
composition of burden testify to the fact that slag conditions of BF-2 and BF-“G” were practically identical. The only dif-
ference in burden was in Fe content. As can be seen, even without having coke rate and specific productivity indices adjust-
ed to the comparable conditions, the indices of the furnace with BRCU exceed by far those of the furnace with BLT. Data
from Table 2 testify to the fact that despite a lower content of Fe in the burden, the performance indices of BF-2 were tangi-
bly better than those of BF-G. Thus, the summary fuel rate and carbon rate fell to 524.8 kg/ton and 433.5 kg/ton, respectively.
Similar indices for BF-G were 560 kg/ton and 477 kg/ton, respectively. The mean specific productivity of BF-2 for three
months was 2.5 tons/m3·day, which was beter compared with BF-G. The specific productivity of BF-G was 2.37 tons/m3·day.
Table 3 gives data showing comparative improvements in percentage. As can be seen from Table 3, in the case of BRCU the
summary fuel and carbon rates (for three months) were lower by 5.07–6.29% and 7.88–9.12%, respectively, in comparison
with BLT, while the specific productivity was by 4.22–6.75% higher.
These quantitative data testify to the fact that the variations in the compared indices were quite significant and make
it possible to conclude that there is a qualitative difference between the charging methods (stacking of burden) executed by
BRCU and BLT.

401
 Fig. 4. Effects of BRCU use in line with increasing furnace volume.

4.0. Influence of furnace volume on BRCU effect

Nowadays there are six chargers with rotary distributor of burden in operation on blast furnaces of 1000 to 3000 m3
volumes. Four out of them have gate and gas sealing valves of conical shape that have been in use since 1989 at WSSP in
Russia (one furnace of 2000 m3 volume and two of 3000 m3 volume) and since 1998 at the Bhilai Steel Plant in India (1000 m3
furnace). The efficiency of BRCU for the green field furnace, erected at JSPL, was assessed by comparing its performance
data with those of the furnace with BLT and similar burden conditions at Tata Steel concerning gas dynamics in iron making
and charging facilities, as pointed out by V. P. Tarasov [4] in his monograph.
The positive trends in using BRCU on furnaces of bigger volumes can be explained by the fact that with increase in
volume and hence increased height and diameter of the furnace, the gas permeability in the burden column would emerge as
a more and more restricting factor, affecting the heat indices. Therefore, the constraints caused by the necessity to use qual-
ity burden (all other conditions being equal, BRCU improves considerably the pattern of burden stacking in furnaces of big-
ger volumes) are likely to become stronger, which is exactly corroborated in practice with the higher efficiency of BRCU
when used in large-volume furnaces.
It should be noted that neither the rotor nor the charging unit have been replaced over 10 years. How the replace-
ment of traditional two-bell chargers with rotary ones affected the operational indices of these furnaces is explained in [1–3].
The results of the above-mentioned analysis corroborate the high efficiency of the innovative technology of charging through
rotary distribution of burden. In Fig. 4 one can see variations in coke rate and furnace productivity in furnaces of different
volumes caused by the installation of rotary charging units as a replacement for traditional two-bell chargers. Based upon four
furnaces out of six, the ironmaking technology was analyzed, together with the ensuing impact step with increasing volume
of the blast furnace. It is interesting to note that these practical data corroborate the inference made by the well-known expert
in the area of gas dynamics in ironmaking and charging facilities, V. P. Tarasov [4], who points it out in his monograph.

5.0. Conclusions
The rotary charging unit implements basically innovative technology of charging burden material into the blast fur-
nace. By this technology, each batch of burden would be stacked softly in many layers in circular uniformity into the desired
annular zone in the top along with simultaneously averaged size and chemistry of material. More than two years of experi-
ence in the use of BRCU at JSPL and 10-year experience in the use of the charger with a rotary distributor of burden at the
Bhilai Steel Plant have demonstrated undoubtedly the advantages of this new technology of charging and improved perfor-
mance capabilities of the rotary charging unit against BLT. The practical results of using rotary charging units in furnaces of
different volumes show that the efficiency of BRCU would grow along with increase in furnace volume.
A charging simulating mathematical model has been worked out to optimize the distribution of burden material
inside the furnace.

402
REFERENCES

1. G. V. Abramin, B. M. Boranbayev, A. V. Koshelnikov, and D. Y. Yankovky, Stahl, No. 3, 1–3 (1999).

2. B. M. Boranbaev, V. N. Vakulin, B. L. Jourakovsky, Yu. M. Glazer, and Sulaiman Ahmed, “Experience of operating
a rotary charging unit at the Bhilai steel plant,” The Iron and Steel Technol. Conf. and Expos., Proc., Cleveland, Ohio,
USA, May 1–4, 2006.
3. B. M. Boranbaev, V. N. Vakulin, Y. M. Glazer, P. S. Rana, A. Sircar, and Manish K. Jha, “Effect of the charging pat-
tern upon blast furnace performance when a bell-less rotary charging unit is used,” The Iron and Steel Technol. Conf.
and Expos. (AISTech2008), Proc., Pittsburgh, PA, USA, May 5–8, 2008.
4. V. P. Tarasov and P. V. Tarasov, The Theory and Technology of Heats in Blast Furnaces, (2007), p. 383.

403