Russian steelmaker NLMK Group has announced that it has started hot-testing the pulverized coal injection (PCI) unit at blast furnace (BF) No. 7 at its Lipetsk plant, which has an annual capacity of 4.3 million mt of pig iron per year.
Accordingly, with a fourth blast furnace at NLMK Lipetsk being equipped with a PCI system, over 90 percent of the plant’s blast furnace capacities will now be covered by this resource-saving technology. This will enable a 30 percent decrease in the consumption of expensive coke, and a 50 percent reduction in the consumption of natural gas.
Start-up of the PCI units at blast furnace No.6, at which hot-testing started in June this year, and at No. 7 is scheduled for the third quarter of the current year. PCI project capital expenditure for the two blast furnaces exceeded RUB 6.8 billion ($112.17 million).