An update from the air separation industry, dated 20160919: Carrier Air Separation – The oxygen enrichment device installed in front of blast furnace axial flow fans has been granted a utility model patent

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Carrier Air Separation: The oxygen enrichment device installed in front of the axial flow fans in blast furnaces has been granted a utility model patent. According to news from September 19th, the **Intellectual Property Office recently issued a utility model patent certificate to Henan Carrier Air Separation Equipment Group Co., Ltd. This utility model patent relates to a new device for oxygen enrichment in front of a blast furnace axial flow fan, which includes a control valve assembly composed of a pneumatically actuated control butterfly valve, a quick shut-off valve, and a turbine-driven butterfly valve ； Oxygen mixing device and related safety protection devices. This device can be widely applied in the steel manufacturing industry, enabling oxygen-enriched iron smelting while also saving energy and reducing consumption. It is understood that the utility model patent for the oxygen-enriching device placed in front of the axial flow fan in blast furnaces utilizes this approach of oxygen enrichment before the axial flow fan; low-pressure oxygen produced by the distillation tower system is sent directly to the inlet of the axial flow fan, thereby increasing the oxygen content in the air at the fan’s inlet. The axial flow fan then takes over the function of the oxygen compressor for compression, which results in significant savings in energy consumption. This patent has been successfully applied in the energy-saving renovation projects of several blast furnaces at Fengnan Economic Security Steel Co., Ltd. and Tangshan Hexin Metal Products Co., Ltd. in Tangshan City, enabling these companies to save a large amount of electrical energy and thus achieve the goal of energy conservation and emission reduction. It has also generated considerable economic benefits for them. There are three types of oxygen supply methods in blast furnaces: the first is pre-blower oxygen supply (that is, oxygen is fed into the suction inlet of the blower and pressurized together with the air, then sent through the air supply system into the blast furnace tuyeres) ； The second method is post-machine oxygen supply (that is, oxygen is added somewhere before the exhaust valve, after the air is discharged from the main fan duct, and then it mixes with the cold air before being sent into the furnace for heating); this is the method used by most manufacturers in China. The third method is also essentially post-machine oxygen supply, where oxygen is mixed with coal powder using an oxygen-coal gun at the furnace level and sent directly to the air inlet, with the aim of increasing the oxygen concentration in a specific area; this method is less commonly used nowadays. It is reported that the second oxygen-enrichment method is currently widely used in the domestic smelting industry (that is, high-pressure oxygen at 3.0 MPa from the oxygen compressor is depressurized twice to 0.6 MPa before being fed into the cold air duct).