A mathematical model of a twin-shaft parallel flow regenerative lime kiln

ABSTRACT Lime is an important flux used in the iron and steel-making processes. Tata Steel Jamshedpur uses a twin-shaft Parallel Flow Regenerative type kiln to calcine limestone. Previously, the kiln was operated based on the temperature measurement at only three locations. This led to suboptimal kiln performance and difficulty in maintaining lime quality. A thermal digital twin was developed using first principles to address these issues. A set of unsteady-state partial-differential equations representing the thermophysical phenomena is solved numerically using the finite volume method. The model was validated with the measured flue gas temperature and lime temperatures. The model is implemented online with the real-time operating parameters to estimate the temperature profile of solid and gas and the degree of conversion of limestone. This real-time visibility enables the operators to optimize the process and achieve lime conversion up to 94%, resulting in energy savings of 31.8 GJ/day and stable lime quality.