To cope with rapid increase of oil prices in recent years, this project started in the fall of 1978 with the object of COM injection into commercial blast furnaces to achieve a reduction in heavy fuel oil consumption. The project is being carried out in partnership with the Coal Mining Research Center under the sponsorship of Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The COM flow tests indicate that the pressure drop of COM in the pipe can be precisely estimated by a pseudo plastic fluid model using the viscosity measured by a cone and plate viscometer.
On the other hand, through the COM combustion tests by the experimental blast furnace it was found that 60 to 85% of injected fine coal was combustible in the raceway and that there was little difference in the gas permeability between COM and oil alone. It is expected that the COM injection rate can be maintained higher than that of heavy fuel oil to keep the theoretical flame temperature at the same level.