#144 - EnErgiron Direct Reduction Technology - Economical, Flexible, Environmentally Friendly

For more than 50 years, HYL (now Tenova HYL) has developed technologies designed to improve steelmaking competitiveness  and productivity for steel facilities. The HYL direct reduction (DR) technology, while perhaps the best known, is accompanied by other technologies designed for making steel in more efficient, cost-effective ways.

The HYL Process has been improved over generations and the current status of the technology, the HYL ZR (or Self-reforming) Process, was developed to allow reduction of iron ores in a shaft furnace without external gas reforming equipment. This process scheme has the ability to produce High Carbon DRI, which allows producers to obtain maximum benefits of carbon in the steel making process, while for merchant sale of the product, eliminating the need for costly briquetting equipment thanks to its highly improved stability.

The recent alliance between Tenova HYL, Techint and Danieli brings a new brand - ENERGIRON – to the forefront of the direct reduction industry. Current environmental regulations worldwide bring more stringent demands to the design of industrial plant operations of all types. 

Energiron technology is characterized by its flexible process configuration which is able to satisfy and exceed these requirements. In regions where either the high cost or low availability of natural gas work against this traditional energy source, the process is easily configured to operate using coke oven gas, syngas from coal gasifiers and other hydrocarbon sources. More importantly, the air and water effluents of the process are not only low but easily controlled.

Incorporation of selective carbon dioxide (CO2) removal systems has been a key factor over the past decade in reducing significantly the emissions levels, providing an additional source of revenue for the plant operator via the captured CO2. The high pressure operation and closed system of an Energiron plant combined with the HYTEMP Pneumatic Transport System reduces dust emissions to both air and settling tanks, making the process more economical and environmentally friendly.

DRI quality-High Carbon DRI

In the Energiron process, carbon in the DRI, mostly as iron carbide (Fe3C), is derived mainly from methane (CH4) and in less extent from carbon monoxide (CO). The level of carbon is adjusted by controlling the reducing gas composition and/or oxygen injection. Most of the carbon in DRI (more than 90% for carbon levels of 4%) currently being produced in the ZR scheme is in the form of iron carbide (Fe3C). The high percentage of Fe3C in the DRI makes the product very stable and presents a unique option related to storage, shipping and handling.

HYL is a member of the Tenova Group. HYL actively develops projects for direct reduction plants worldwide under the Energiron brand name. They started up the world's first successful direct reduction plant in 1957. Over 40 DR modules have been supplied worldwide since then.

http://www.tenovagroup.com/companies_hyl.php?id_company=2

For information on Nova gas analyzer systems, give Mike or Dave at Nova a call, or send us an e-mail.

1-800-295-3771

sales at nova-gas dot com

websales at nova-gas dot com

http://www.nova-gas.com/

https://twitter.com/NOVAGAS

http://www.linkedin.com/company/nova-analytical-systems-inc-

http://www.tenovagroup.com/

Photos copyright © 2012 HYL 

#143 - Steel Wheels of AIST

The Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) is a non-profit organization with 16,000 members from more than 70 countries. Their mission is to advance the technical development, production, processing and application of iron and steel.

The board of directors is comprised of several industry leaders such as Francesco Memoli, Vice President Steelmaking, Tenova Core.

I noticed an excellent visual aid on their website recently called the Steel Wheel. It is a graphical representation of the steel-making process. Its circular format allows us to visualize how each of the subsequent steel-making processes are connected with the primary production of iron.

I think I will be putting this one in my ‘cool stuff’ file.

http://www.aist.org/resources/story-of-steel/chart-steel-making-process

For information on gas analyzer systems, give Mike or Dave at Nova a call, or send us an e-mail.

1-800-295-3771

sales at nova-gas dot com

websales at nova-gas dot com

http://www.nova-gas.com/

https://twitter.com/NOVAGAS

http://www.linkedin.com/company/nova-analytical-systems-inc-

http://www.tenovagroup.com/

#142 - Spare Parts and Service pages for Nova equipment

As an instrument manufacturer, we frequently get requests for spare parts and service. We recently added two buttons to the right hand side of our website to assist with those who require parts and service.

Each button leads to a form that is designed to facilitate these types of inquiries. The Submit button sends the inquiry into the Nova Parts & Service Departments who will respond in 1-2 days.

For information on gas analyzer systems, give Mike or Dave at Nova a call, or send us an e-mail.

1-800-295-3771

sales at nova-gas dot com

websales at nova-gas dot com

http://www.nova-gas.com/
https://twitter.com/NOVAGAS
http://www.linkedin.com/company/nova-analytical-systems-inc-
http://www.tenovagroup.com/

#140 - New Application Landing Pages on Nova website

A couple of years ago, we added some content pages to our website in an effort to provide more information on what industries we serve and what our equipment actually does. We already had a product catalog which showcased our products, but this was not the best venue to provide general descriptive information about our industry and company. These new content pages were called ‘landing pages’ by the people who assisted us with them.

The idea behind our landing pages is to provide an interval layer between the home page and the product pages. The landing pages can provide relevant information that is beyond the scope of the home page and that leads into relevant areas of a product catalog.

Our original landing pages represented a first attempt at bringing some organization to our very diverse product line and the many industries we serve. We did a couple pages that featured information on our products from a gas perspective, e.g. oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc. We also did a couple pages that were targeted to the industries we serve, e.g. landfill, power generation, etc.

Historically, we have noticed that our customers often have a general idea what they want, but they select the incorrect instrument for their needs. This is entirely understandable; we don’t expect people to know our product line in detail. We have some evidence that the landing pages were a frequent destination for our website visitors and were hopefully somewhat helpful as a transition into our product catalog.

However, we always felt that our original landing pages were a little light on detail. So we recently revised the content and added more pages. The intent is to provide our visitors with more relevant information and hopefully provide evidence that we have some analytical expertise.

We have done the following pages so far:

Steelmaking & Heavy Industry

Metal Heat Treating

Power Generation & Hydrogen Purity

Flue Gas & Emissions

Process Gas

Syngas & Gasification

Landfill & Biogas

Portable Landfill Analysis

Engine Exhaust

Ambient Air Quality

Analyzers for Hazardous Areas

Multi-gas Technology

The Model 380

Tenova Gas Velocity Measurement

What’s New on the Nova Blog

Nova Models Page

Tenova Goodfellow Page

Tenova Group Page

Oxygen Page

Carbon Monoxide Page

Carbon Dioxide Page

Methane Page

Hydrogen Page

Site Map Page

Check out whatever interests you.

As we think of more ideas, they will no doubt find their way onto a landing page on the website.

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#139 - Coal Mine Gas Analysis Applications – Part 2

Last time, we talked about some gas analysis applications that emerged from a coal mine project in the southern USA. This mine is equipped with an elaborate tube system which allows air samples to be drawn from different parts of the mine to a central monitoring station.

The first instruments we provided to this facility performed beyond expectations. This enabled further cooperation between our companies on some additional projects. Here are the 3rd and 4th applications from this project.

Application #3 – Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Research

The next request from this facility was to expand the baseline air analysis. In detecting fire events in a distant part of the mine, it was suspected that there would be brief spikes of ppm CO and ppm H2 coming in through the relevant areas of the tube bundle.

Previously, measurement of these gases was accomplished using a Tedlar sample bag and an external laboratory located above ground. This process took several days to complete which effectively negated its value as a fire detection methodology. A continuous CO / H2 analyzer would provide an immediate measure of these gases without the inconveniences associated with the existing process.

The requested ranges were:

CO: 0 – 1,000 PPM

H2: 0 – 1,000 PPM

These gases and ranges are frequently achieved in analyzers using electrochemical sensors. However, these sensors have issues with mutual interferences. That is, CO provokes a response on the H2 sensor, and H2 provokes a response on the CO sensor. It would be impossible to obtain a reliable and accurate result where both gases were present in the sample at the same time.

The first and obvious approach was to switch the CO measurement methodology to IR (infrared). We have a long-path IR that is ppm CO capable. This method eliminated one of the interference problems. The IR reading will not be affected by the levels of H2 that were expected in the sample.

We do not have access to an alternate method for measuring ppm H2. However, we can utilize the stable output from the IR CO detector to provide some compensation to the H2 reading. This will subtract some of the CO effects from the displayed H2 result. However, it does not remove the physical effects of the CO on the H2 sensor. A spike of CO would provoke the expected response on the H2 sensor. The compensation circuit would help, but afterwards, the H2 sensor would be slow to recover.

So we devised a calibration procedure which allowed some ‘re-freshing’ of the H2 sensor to occur when needed. However, we noticed that the CO / H2 effects only seemed to occur during the spike periods. At the levels normally present in the mine, there did not appear to be any adverse affects on the continuous analysis. We assume that even if a spike occurred, the elevated readings would be valuable and the post-spike recovery could be managed as needed.

As with the previous applications, this analyzer required a reliable data-logging feature. We upgraded the data logger to a unit with larger capacity and a more convenient data storage process. The collected data is written directly to a SD card similar to what is used in many digital cameras. The SD cards are swapped out weekly for subsequent data analysis. We mounted the logger itself on the inside of the analyzer door. This protected it and allowed easy wiring access.

Data logger mounted on door of
gas analyzer and writes to SD memory card.

Application #4 – Air Flow Research

Very low levels of SF6 (sulfur hexafluoride) can be released in the mine as a tracer gas and tracked using the tube bundle. By ‘sniffing’ for SF6 in the relevant tubes, the air flow in the mine can be modeled. SF6 tends to have a persistent and detectable presence even after a long time and at very low levels. This allows the air flow model to be detailed and to capture subtleties not detectable by other means.

We have produced instruments for 0-100% SF6 for analysis of switch gear atmospheres. (Here is a link.) In large electrical switches where the possibility exists of dangerous arcing, a blanket atmosphere of SF6 will quench the arcs. To check the purity of the SF6 atmosphere, a gas analyzer can be used. The measurement methodology on these models is thermalconductivity.

However, the mine tracer gas application required a range of 0-50ppm. A percent scale instrument would not be useful in this case. The thermal conductivity detector does not have ppm SF6 capability. So we provided an infrared detector which can measure 0-50ppm SF6 in a background of breathable ambient air.

The same style of data logger was also integrated onto the door of the analyzer cabinet. Although it probably wasn’t necessary, we tested the output of this detector in background of air with spikes of H2 & CO as mentioned above in Application #3. No interferences or disruptions to the SF6 reading were observed.

Front view of continuous SF6 analyzer during
inspection phase. SF6 analysis on this instrument
done by infrared detector.

So far, all of the equipment we have supplied into this facility has worked well. The applications discussed in this post were somewhat experimental for us. But are occasionally willing to step outside of our standard designs for projects that interest us. With patience and support from the end-user in this case, we managed to produce instruments that will hopefully make a useful contribution to mine safety research.

For information on these and other gas analyzer systems, give Mike or Dave at Nova a call, or send us an e-mail.

1-800-295-3771

sales at nova-gas dot com

websales at nova-gas dot com

http://www.nova-gas.com/

https://twitter.com/NOVAGAS

http://www.linkedin.com/company/nova-analytical-systems-inc-

http://www.tenovagroup.com/

Switch gear picture - http://emadrlc.blogspot.ca/2012/07/alstom-145kv-gas-insulated-switchgear.html

#138 - China’s Pollution-Fighting Budget Will Have to be Bigger Than its Military Budget

We mentioned air pollution levels in China in a previous post.

The folks at Next Big Future have distilled a couple of articles from various sources into this interesting post about China’s plans for remediation.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/08/chinas-pollution-fighting-budget-will.html

A couple of the reader comments are also informative and worth reading.

#137 - This Caught our Interest Because We’re Into Hydrogen

We have been providing accurate hydrogen (H2) analysis for many years. Usually, the hydrogen equipment that our analyzers are hooked up to are quite large. Like this H2-cooled power generator:

This article from Wired features a much smaller handheld H2 generator for recharging phones. This is obviously for a very different purpose than the power generator shown above. Interesting stuff. May be coming soon to a store near you.

Photo: Tim Moynihan/WIRED