Use of oxygen from ion transport membranes in blast furnace

摘要

The present invention is a method of integrating oxygen production with blast furnace operation. A heated air stream is introduced to an ion transfer membrane separator, producing a permeate and a retentate. The permeate and the motive stream are introduced into an ejector jet pump producing an oxygen enriched stream. The oxygen enriched stream is introduced into blast furnace. In another embodiment of the present invention, the permeate and a steam motive stream are introduced into an ejector jet pump. Heated air inlet stream is introduced into a cascading series of ion transfer membrane separators, producing a series of permeate streams and a series of retentate streams wherein each retentate stream acts as the input stream for the subsequent ion transfer membrane separator. Thereby producing a series of oxygen enriched streams which are combined and introduced into blast furnace.

主权项

1. A method of integrating oxygen production with blast furnace operation, comprising;
a) dividing a compressed air stream (103) into a blast furnace air stream (104) and an ITM air stream (105); b) combining the blast furnace air stream (104) with an oxygen enriched stream (125) and introducing the combined stream into a first blast furnace stove (108a), wherein it is heated, thereby producing heated blast furnace air stream (109), which is divided into a hot heat exchanger stream (110) and a bypass heated stream (111); c) introducing at least a portion of a blast furnace gas stream (122) into a second blast furnace stove (108b), wherein it is used as fuel to heat the second blast furnace stove 108b; d) introducing the ITM air stream (105), into a heat exchanger (112), wherein it exchanges heat with the hot heat exchanger stream (110), thereby producing cooled heat exchanger stream (113) and warmed ITM stream (114), cooled heat exchanger stream (113) then being recombined with bypass heated stream (111) and introduced into blast furnace (121); e) splitting warmed ITM stream (114) into a ITM inlet stream (123) and a motive stream (118); f) introducing ITM inlet stream (123) to a cascading series of ion transfer membrane separators (115, 204, 211, 217), thereby producing a series of permeate streams (116, 205, 212, 218) and a series of retentate streams (203, 210, 216, 117), wherein each retentate stream acts as the input stream for the subsequent ion transfer membrane separator; and g) introducing the permeate stream (116, 205, 212, 218) into a series of ejector jet pumps (119, 208, 214, 220), the ejector jet pumps using motive stream (201, 207, 213, 219) as motive fluid, thereby producing a series of oxygen enriched streams (202, 209, 215, 221), which are combined to form a combined oxygen enriched stream (120), which is introduced into blast furnace (121).