Service Environment Simulation and Design of Refractory for Hydrogen-Based Shaft Furnace

With the development of hydrogen metallurgy and hydrogen-based shaft furnace, the corresponding refractories for critical parts have higher requirements. Understanding the service environment characteristic and implementing targeted design for the performance are thus particularly important for refractories. In this paper, the temperature, pressure and gas phase concentration distribution for interior and wall surface in reduction domain of hydrogen-based shaft furnace were simulated by a software named Ansys. Also, the thermodynamic stability of typical components of traditional refractory during the process was calculated by FactSage. The results show that the high-temperature and high-pressure service area is concentrated near the gas inlet, while H₂O is concentrated in the top and bottom areas of the furnace. Increasing the temperature of inlet gas has a certain effect on the temperature field, but has little effect on the pressure field and gas phase composition. Among the typical components of conventional refractory, Al₂O₃,ZrO₂, magnesium aluminum spinel, calcium-hexaluminate and TiO₂ exhibit a thermodynamic stability, which can be used as potential refractory components of furnace walls. AlN or TiC can be used as additive materials to improve the relevant properties of these refractories. In addition, some impurity components as SiO₂, MgO, CaO, Cr₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, SiC, Si₃NN, B₄C and BN can be eliminated. This study can provide a theoretical basis and methodological support for the service environment simulation and material component selection of refractory for a hydrogen-based shaft furnace.