Division Description

Two kinds of potentially reusable waste energies are discharged from the sinter plants:

• the sensible heat from the waste gases from the sintering machines

• the sensible heat of the cooling air from the sinter cooler.

Partial waste gas recirculation is a special case of heat recovery from waste gases from sintering machines and is dealt with in BAT 23. The sensible heat is transferred directly back to the sinter bed by the hot recirculated gases. At the time of writing (2010), this is the only practical method of recovering heat from the waste gases.

The sensible heat in the hot air from the sinter cooler can be recovered by one or more of the following ways:

• steam generation in a waste heat boiler for use in the iron and steel works

• hot water generation for district heating

• preheating combustion air in the ignition hood of the sinter plant

• preheating the sinter raw mix

• use of the sinter cooler gases in a waste gas recirculation system.