Cooling gas recirculation in the upper reduction zone of a direct reduction shaft furnace

Abstract

A shaft furnace utilized for producing the direct reduction of iron includes an iron oxide intake located at the top of the shaft furnace for receiving an iron oxide, a reduction gas port for injecting a reduction gas into the shaft furnace, a top gas offtake located above the reduction gas port for removing a top gas resulting from reduction of the iron oxide, a cooling gas offtake located above the reduction gas port and below the top gas offtake, and a cooling a gas intake positioned above the reduction gas port and below the cooling gas offtake. The cooling gas offtake is configured to remove a portion of the reduction gas from the shaft furnace. The cooling gas intake is configured to inject a cooling gas resulting from processing the portion of the reduction gas into the shaft furnace.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.