82 Technical Article

High-Performance Taphole Clay: A Key for Blast Furnace

Hearth Protection and a Tool for Cost Reduction
Authors Oftentimes, blast furnace hearth wear becomes a bottleneck in lengthening the blast furnace
Eric Y. Sako campaign. The hearth’s taphole area, which is severely eroded by the molten iron and intense
application and R&D coordinator, slag flow, can become a challenge for stable blast furnace operation. This paper presents recent
Saint-Gobain Ceramics – High development on taphole clay technology, which has shown excellent results in increasing taphole
Performance Refractories,
Vinhedo, Brazil length, creating a good protection for the hearth. Additionally, it is shown how a high-performance
[email protected] taphole can also reduce costs in the blast furnace operation.

Douglas Galesi
application and R&D manager,
Saint-Gobain Ceramics – High
Performance Refractories,
Vinhedo, Brazil
I n order to achieve profitable
results in markets of commodity
items, such as the competitive steel
changes in the fuel composition
(when higher injection of pulverized
coal prevails over the regular rate of
Carlos Leão industry, producers must keep a coke addition).1,2 Other operational
commercial director, Saint-Gobain constant focus on cost reduction parameters also play a relevant role
Ceramics – High Performance
Refractories, Vinhedo, Brazil and highly efficient production on the hearth walls wear, such as the
plans. Increasing the working life of Zn deposition and the changes on
F.A. Rodrigues some key equipment, for instance, is deadman position.
technical manager, Saint-Gobain
Ceramics – High Performance of utmost importance in steel plants, A suitable protection of the
Refractories, Vinhedo, Brazil as it postpones huge stoppages for ceramic hearth is mostly dependent
refractory repair. In the ironmak- on the performance of the taphole
Alcides Melo Souza
application coordinator, Saint-Gobain ing sector, special attention is dedi- clay.3 When pushed into the fur-
Ceramics – High Performance cated to blast furnace campaigns, nace after each casting in order to
Refractories, Vinhedo, Brazil which are mainly limited by the wear completely seal the taphole, the clay
Jack Roy degree of the ceramic hearth. This accumulates close to the inner walls,
senior application engineer, Saint- specific region is severely eroded generating a stable ceramic protec-
Gobain Ceramics – High Performance by the intense flow of pig iron and tion called “mushroom,” as shown
Refractories, Vinhedo, Brazil
slag inside the blast furnace, and in Fig. 1.
M. Kitamura its deterioration may be accelerated The use of a low-quality taphole
technical manager, Shinagawa in case of high production rate, clay leads to either an inefficient
Refractories Co. – Research and
Development Center, high molten metal temperature and protection of the furnace walls or
Bizen-Okayama, Japan an increased amount of
[email protected] pushed clay required for
T. Horiushi rebuilding the eroded
vice president, Shinagawa America, mushroom every each
Shinagawa Advanced Materials, Figure 1 casting. Neither outcome
Mogadore, Ohio, USA
[email protected] is financially desired, as
not only do the steel pro-
ducers end up spending
more money with taphole
MAR 2018    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

clay, but they will also have

to shut down the blast fur-
I

nace earlier than expect-

ed. Moreover, besides the
hearth protection, the clay
performance has a direct
impact on the opera-
tion stability by assuring
a controlled drainage of
I

Graphical representation of the “mushroom”

formation inside the blast furnace during taphole liquids from the furnace.
clay pushing. Therefore, the taphole clay
 83

formulation must be designed based on an integrated furnace environment has become much more aggres-
solution sustained on three main pillars: sive to the taphole clay. The slag volume, for instance,
has progressively increased as a consequence of the
• High corrosion and erosion resistance, in order use of poorer raw materials, whereas the significant
to withstand the aggressive attack by the slag trend on coke rate reduction (as illustrated in Fig. 2)4
and molten iron flow, resulting in long cast has pushed the pig iron flow directly into a more
duration and uniform casting rate. abrasive contact with hearth walls. In this scenario,
• Ability to stick firmly to the walls and to the old simple adjustments on existing formulations are not
taphole clay present inside the furnace, helping enough, and innovative technologies are fundamen-
to build a long and stable taphole length. tally required for the development of high-perfor-
• Adequate plastic behavior and appropriate mance taphole clays.
mechanical strength through the entire tem- The present work addresses the development of
perature range in order to avoid any issues dur- a novel generation of taphole clay, which is able to
ing pushing and drilling. attain long and stable taphole lengths, guaranteeing
a reliable protection of the blast furnace hearth walls.
It is also important to mention that blast furnaces
operate differently from each other, according to the
raw materials used (iron ore and pellets rate, coke New Technology Concepts
reactivity, etc.), to the fuel composition (coke and
pulverized coal balance), to its daily production, to Corrosion and Erosion Resistance — Al2O3 -based raw
its inner volume, to the equipment used during push- materials are commonly used in taphole composi-
ing and drilling, and to many other factors associated tions in order to provide good chemical stability
with the pig iron production process. Thus, although when in contact with the molten pig iron. On the
having to assure the three main features listed above, other hand, silicon carbide presents an extremely low
the taphole clay formulation must also be tailor- reactivity with the blast furnace slag. The proper bal-
made for each furnace and its specific operational ance between those two components is, therefore, of
parameters. utmost importance when designing a high-corrosion-
Ferrosilicon nitride, silicon carbide, alumina and resistant formulation for a specific furnace. However,
carbon sources are the main compounds present as stated above, the current operative conditions
in taphole clay formulations. The adjustments per- have combined a strong slag attack, due to the high
formed to better design the taphole mix for a spe- slag volume, and a very abrasive pig iron flow, which
cific blast furnace are usually based on balancing the limits the improvements based only on the adjust-
proportion of those main raw materials. Nonetheless, ments of the Al2O3/SiC ratio. In the new taphole clay
due to the current tied economic situation, the blast generation, a different approach was applied in order
to overcome that hurdle: the grain size distribution
optimization.
As already pointed out by many authors, 5,6 the
corrosion mechanism of a ceramic body by a molten
Figure 2
component is ruled not only by the chemical reaction
650 itself, but also by the total contact surface available for
Coke that chemical reaction to take place. In other words, if
600 Oil the ceramic material presents high open porosity, the
Coal molten metal (or molten slag) would penetrate easily,
Reductant Rate (kg/tHM)

550 C.O. Gas

generating a higher contact surface for reaction. As a
500 consequence, the corrosion process advances quickly.
Thus, when optimizing the grain size distribution, the
MAR 2018    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

450 taphole clay porosity is reduced, limiting the available

surface for the reaction with slag and pig iron.
400
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Additionally, it is also important to bear in mind

350 that the material’s mechanical strength is also entirely
related to its porosity, as pores act as stress concentra-
300 tion mechanisms, helping crack propagation. Once
1970 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996
the pore distribution is controlled, the clay mechani-
Year
cal strength could also be improved, leading to an
efficient resistance against the intense pig iron flow.
I

Rate of reducing fuels used in blast furnace operations

through the years.1 A clear trend on coke rate reduction can
be oberved.
84 Technical Article
Figure 3
In summary, by combining an opti-
mized grain size distribution and an
extremely efficient deflocculant additive,
an entirely novel taphole clay technol-
ogy was developed for building and keep-
ing stable mushrooms and long taphole
lengths.

Experimental Procedure
Structural configuration of additive “XY.” The new taphole clay composition (here-
after denoted as “new THM”) designed
according to the innovative concepts pre-
viously described was comparatively evalu-
Adhesion and Plastic Behavior — A taphole clay with ated with a standard composition (hereafter denoted
high corrosion and abrasion resistance generates a as “standard THM”). Both new THM and standard
very stable and tough mushroom, helping to keep THM presented the same overall chemical composi-
long taphole length values. Nonetheless, in order to tion, differing only on the grain size distribution
build such long values, the clay should also be able to and on the presence of XY additive in the new THM
firstly fill in properly all the taphole, without any mol- formulation.
ten metal infiltration or sealing problems. Moreover, After performing the mixing step according to an
the clay must also stick firmly to the hearth wall and internal mixing procedure, the samples of different
to the existing mushroom. In terms of materials shapes were prepared by uniaxial pressing. The open
properties, a high-performance taphole clay should porosity and mechanical strength measurements were
present, respectively, a suitable plastic behavior and conducted after a fast heat treatment method (Fig. 4),
strong adhesiveness.3 For this purpose, a specific which aimed to better simulate the actual condi-
deflocculant additive was developed and evaluated tions inside the taphole right after the clay has been
in this work. The additive was named as “XY” and it pushed into the furnace. In this method, the unfired
presents a structural configuration as shown in Fig. 3. cylindrical samples (40 mm height x 40 mm diameter)
The spherical shape of its main grains provides excel- were inserted directly into a pre-heated furnace at a
lent injectability as a consequence of the efficient desired temperature (400°C, 800°C or 1,000°C) and
ball-bearing effect, which reduces the usual friction kept inside for either 20 or 40 minutes. After that
among the clay components as well. period of time, the samples were withdrawn from
Besides increasing the clay plasticity, the additive the furnace and cooled down to room temperature.
XY was designed in a way that its deterioration takes During the entire test, the samples are fully protected
place in a wide temperature range, starting around against any potential oxidation. After the fast heat
400°C and continuing up to 1,200°C. Such a disinte- treatment, the cold crushing strength (CCS) was
gration process gradually generates transient liquid measured according to ASTM C133-94 standard,
phases, which optimize the contact of the clay with whereas the open porosity was evaluated by using the
the taphole and the mushroom surfaces, leading to Archimedes technique in water, following the ASTM
strong adhesion properties. C380 standard.
Hot modulus of rupture (HMoR) was
carried out under three-point bend-
ing tests (ASTM C583) at 1,200°C and
1,400°C. For this test, prismatic samples
MAR 2018    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

Figure 4 (150 mm x 25 mm x 25 mm) were shaped,

pre-fired, cooled at room temperature
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and then reheated for testing.

Corrosion tests were conducted in a
rotary furnace, using unfired pressed
samples. Depending on the test condi-
tions, a different mix of blast furnace slag
and pig iron was used:
I

Description of the fast heat treatment method.

 85

Table 1
• 80% slag + 20% pig iron for slag attack
test. Chemical Composition of the Blast Furnace Slag Used in the Corrosion
Tests
• 20% slag + 80% pig iron for pig iron
attack test. SiO2 CaO Al2O3 Fe2O3 MgO MnO Basicity B2
34.0 45.5 10.4 0.4 5.5 0.7 1.3
Table 1 presents the chemical composi-
tion of the blast furnace slag used in the
tests. The testing took place for 2 hours
around 1,550°C and the slag + pig iron Figure 5
mix was changed every hour.
35.0
After the evaluation at lab scale, a pilot Standard THM 32.6
31.4
trial was conducted at two different blast New THM 29.3
30.3
29.6
30.7
30.0
furnaces in Brazil (A and B) in order to
validate the better performance of new 25.0

Apparent Porosity (%)

THM composition at actual conditions. 22.2 22.6
20.5
Blast furnace A presents a daily produc- 20.0
tion of 8,500 ton of pig iron and operates 15.5
17.2

with four tapholes. Blast furnace No. 2 15.0

presents a daily production of 7,500 tons

10.0 9.6
of pig iron and operates with only two
tapholes.
5.0

0.0
Results and Discussion 20' 40' 20' 40' 20' 40'
400°C 400°C 800°C 800°C 1000°C 1000°C

Time (min)
Figs. 5 and 6 present, respectively, the Temperature (°C)
open porosity and the cold crushing
strength values of new THM and standard
Open porosity of new THM and standard THM after heat treatment for
THM compositions after the fast heat 20 minutes and 40 minutes at 400°C, 800°C and 1,000°C.
treatment for 20 minutes and 40 minutes
at 400°C, 800°C and 1,000°C.
In Fig. 5, it is possible to notice the posi-
tive effect of an optimized grain size distri- Figure 6
bution and the use of the newly designed
deflocculant additive on the clay apparent 12.0
11.3
Standard THM
porosity, mainly after 20 minutes, when 10.2 New THM 10.1
10.0
Cold Compressive Strength (MPa)

9.7
the additive deterioration begins to take 10.0 9.6

place. Due to a better packed structure

and high bonding strength (as observed 8.0
7.4
in Fig. 6), the usual high volume expan- 6.8
6.0
sion and the consequent increased poros- 6.0 5.8 5.9

ity at 400°C, originated by the volatiles’ 4.9

release, is restrained in the new THM. 4.0

That proper balance between porosity and
mechanical strength during the volatiles’ 2.0
release is essential to avoid crack genera-
MAR 2018    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

tion and a poor corrosion resistance when 0.0

20' 40' 20' 40' 20' 40'
in contact with the molten metal and slag.
400°C 400°C 800°C 800°C 1000°C 1000°C
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Although presenting open porosity and

Time (min)
cold crushing strength results similar to Temperature (°C)
the standard THM composition at 800°C,
the improved performance of the new
Cold crushing strength of new THM and standard THM after heat treatment
THM was again detected after firing at for 20 minutes and 40 minutes at 400°C, 800°C and 1,000°C.
1,000°C, in which the liquid phases gener-
ated during the XY additive deterioration
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played a very important role on speeding

up the material’s sintering process. For
86 Technical Article
Figure 7
this reason, the apparent porosity values are more
25 than 20% lower than the usual clay.
New THM 1200°C Fig. 7 shows the hot modulus of rupture values for
20 1400°C new THM and standard THM attained at 1,200°C
and 1,400°C as a function of the materials apparent
HMoR (MPa)

15
porosity. The results confirm that the taphole clay
developed with the novel technology is able to hold
10
its enhanced performance at high temperatures as
5 well. Not only could the effect of the lower porosity
Standard THM
be noted by the high HMoR values, but also the fact
0 that the transient liquid phase from the XY additive
15 18 21 24 27 30
did not affect the new THM mechanical behavior at
Apparent Porosity (%)
all. Such aspect is highly relevant, as low values of hot
mechanical strength could easily decrease the mate-
Hot modulus of rupture (HMoR) values for new THM and
standard THM attained at 1,200°C and 1,400°C as a function rial’s erosion resistance to the aggressive pig iron
of the materials’ apparent porosity. peripheral flow.
Owing to such improved mechanical strength and
to the proper grain size distribution, the new THM
formulation presented a much better corrosion resis-
Figure 8 tance to both slag and pig iron, as previously expected.
120
Fig. 8 shows the corrosion index of the two composi-
tions, measured after the slag and pig iron attack tests
100 100
100 performed at lab scale.
85 Based on the outstanding results attained at lab
79
Corrosion Index

80
(relative unity)

scales, two pilot batches were produced and sent

for field trials at two different blast furnaces, which
60
are here referred to as Blast Furnace A and Blast
40 Furnace B. Figs. 9 and 10 presents the daily average
values of taphole length measured during the trials
20 at each furnace, where the green square highlights
the period of time where the new THM was used. At
0 Blast Furnace A, the performance of new THM was
Slag attack Pig iron attack
Standard THM New THM
compared with the values attained with the stan-
dard THM, whereas at Blast Furnace B the reference
for comparison was a material provided by another
Corrosion index of new THM and standard THM compositions
after the slag and pig iron attack tests.

Figure 9 Figure 10
New THM New THM
4200 3800
3600
4000
Taphole Length (mm)

Taphole Length (mm)

3400
3800
3200
3600 3000
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2800
3400
2600
I

3200
2400
3000 2200
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
Days of the Month Days of the Month

Daily average values of taphole length obtained in Blast Daily average values of taphole length obtained in Blast
Furnace A. The green square highlights the period of time Furnace B. The green square highlights the period of time
where the new THM was used and the red line shows the where the new THM was used and the red line shows the
I

minimum value requested by the customer. minimum value requested by the customer.
 87

taphole clay supplier, which was being used during References

the other days of the month.
On both graphs, one can easily observe that due 1. R.J. van Laar et al., “Blast Furnace Hearth Management for Safe
to the current aggressive operative conditions in the and Long Campaigns,” 2003 ISSTech Conference Proceedings,
Indianapolis, Ind., USA, 2003, pp. 1079–1090.
Brazilian blast furnaces, both the standard THM
2. K. Spaleck, M. Schoeman, W. Seegers et al., “Practices and Design for
and the material provided by another supplier were Extending the Hearth Life in the Mittal Steel Company Blast Furnaces,”
not able to provide the desired taphole length val- Fifth European Coke and Ironmaking Congress, 2005, Stockholm,
ues. Right after the standard clay was changed to Sweden, pp. 10–15.
the new THM, long values of taphole length could 3. M. Kitamura, R. Nakamura and H. Sumimura, “Study of the High
Density Taphole Clay for Blast Furnace,” Journal of the Technical
be obtained, pointing out a fast mushroom recover- Association of Refractories Japan, Vol. 22, No. 4, 2002, pp. 350–354.
ing. Moreover, those high values remained for many 4. C.P. Manning and R.J. Fruehan, “Emerging Technologies for Iron and
days, mainly in Blast Furnace A (Fig. 9). After some Steelmaking,” JOM, Vol. 53, No. 10, 2001, pp. 20–23.
days, the new THM was intentionally changed again 5. S. Asano, T. Yamamura, T. Kaneshige and M. Nanba, “Mechanism of
to the standard THM (Fig. 9) or to the competitor Slag Penetration on Castables Refractories Containing spinel Clinkers
for Steel Ladle,” Taikabutsu, No. 42, 1990, pp. 700–705.
material (Fig. 10) in order to check whether there
6. P. Korgul, D.R. Wilson and W.E. Lee, “Microstructural Analysis of
was any other addition effect helping to keep those Corroded Alumina-Spinel Castable Refractories,” J. Eur. Ceram. Soc.,
positive results. However, the taphole length values Vol. 17, 1997, pp. 77–84. F
immediately dropped, indicating that the current
technology widely used for taphole clay production is
no longer attending the recent variations on the steel This paper was presented at AISTech 2017 — The Iron & Steel Technology
Conference and Exposition, Nashville, Tenn., USA, and published in the
production process. A innovative solution based on Conference Proceedings.
different concepts, such as the high-performance new
THM, proved to be the key answer to protect the blast
furnace hearth and help to lengthen its working life.

Conclusions

In this work, entirely novel concepts of taphole clay

production were proposed based on the optimization
of grain size distribution and on the use of a special
deflocculant additive. By combining those two mecha-
nisms, a new THM formulation was designed, show-
ing outstanding results at lab scale: tougher struc-
ture, controlled pores distribution, high mechanical
strength at a wide temperature range and, conse-
quently, a reduced corrosion index by both molten
slag and pig iron.
Those excellent results could also be observed
during the pilot trials at two different blast fur-
naces, where a fast mushroom buildup and stable
values of taphole length were registered. Such high-
performance material allows a blast furnace hearth
to continue operating with a safe protection, enabling
its working life to be lengthened by many years and
consequently reducing the overall costs required for
MAR 2018    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

maintenance stoppages.
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