Having no coke plant, Kobe Works of Kobe Steel aimed at low coke-ratio operation of its blast furnace process. Furthermore, its sintering plant was closed in 1999, and the process was converted to all-pellet operation in 2001. Afterward, the plant was using self-fluxed dolomite pellets produced at and shipped from Kakogawa Works. Kobe Works was the only site in Japan that adopted and continued all-pellet operation and optimized the complex control of burden distribution in accordance with the high pellet ratio and pulverized coal combustion in accordance with the multi-brand coal types, which it did in the 4th blast furnace (inaugurated in 2007). Furthermore, replacing lump ore with self-fluxed dolomite pellets has improved the meltdown property of iron ore at high temperature. As a result, operation at a low coke rate of 283 kg/tonne was achieved under the severe conditions of a high pellet ratio (80) and raw materials that were all stored in the yard.
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