PONE-D-20-19167

A Comprehensive Investigation on Reaction Behavior Features of Coke with Different CRI in the Simulated Cohesive Zone of a Blast Furnace

PLOS ONE

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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3. Please provide further information on the two types of coke used in the study, such as characteristics, brand/vendor information and how the coke was obtained.

4. Thank you for stating the following in the Financial Disclosure section:

'Guang-hui Wang received for this work.

This work was financially Supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFB0304300&2017YFB0304303)

No sponsors of funder play any role in the study design, data dollection and analysis, desision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.'

We note that one or more of the authors are employed by commercial companies:

Key Laboratory of Hubei Province for Coal Conversion and New Carbon Materials, Iron and Steel Research Institute of Shasteel, Zhangjiagang and Xingtai Risun Science and Technology Co., Ltd.

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Additional Editor Comments:

Dear authors

I have received reports from both reviewers. Now I can have feedback on your manuscript and on this basis, I can assure you that your paper can be accepted for publication in PLOS ONE journal, once the attached comments, concerns and feedback are properly addressed in the next version of the paper. Please ensure the revised version to be free of typos and grammatical errors. Also, attach a rebuttal letter consisting of your responses against each comment.

Looking forward to receiving the revision.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: N/A

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors present a study on the microstructural changes, gasification characteristics and reaction mechanism of coke with different CRI in a thermogravimetric analyzer. The fundamental characteristics were studied and tested by using different techniques, such as TGA, DTG, DTA, XRD, optical microscope, SEM and EDS etc. After reading this paper some questions arise that need be clarified by the authors.

1) In Table 1, the words CRI and CSR were explained in the manuscript, but the meaning of the words M40, M10, Vad, St,d and Ad was not appeared. Are these words familiar to professionals?

2) In Table 2,

Table 2 Chemical composition of sinter (wt. %)

Elements Fe FeO SiO2 Al2O3 CaO MgO P S

Sinter 57.62 9.62 4.55 1.85 10.28 1.71 0.059 0.018

What is the meaning of letter T before Fe?

3) In page5 paragraph 2, “In Fig. 2, (002) and (100) peaks increase when coke is heated to 1350 ℃.” Should be “In Fig. 2, (002) and (100) peaks increase after coke is heated to 1350 ℃.”.

4) In Fig. 4, the scale should be added, even in the macrography.

5) References 1-23 are repeated.

6) The format of references should be unified, such as the references 4, 13, 16, 17, 23, 28, 36 and 41 should be use the full name of the journal, because the full name is used in other references; there is one more 2007 in Ref. 7; the name of the last author in Ref. 26.

Reviewer #2: Overall the manuscript “A Comprehensive Investigation on Reaction Behavior Features of Coke with Different CRI in the Simulated Cohesive Zone of a Blast Furnace” is a well described study investigating the reaction behavior of coke in blast furnace. I have few questions and comments which needs to be answered.

1. Equation 1 and two looks very shrink. It can be modified

2. Why elemental analysis was carried out in this study and what were the significance of analyzing only those elements which are presented in the table 3.

3. Conclusion should be summarized in single paragraph rather than in points and should not be very long. It must reflect the findings and future perspectives of the study.

4. Figure 2 is not very clear. One cannot differentiate among different peaks.

5. Some of the latest references should be added like 2015 onward.

6. Author should add some figures to the supplementary data as with so many figures in the main text will make manuscript very crowded.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Xueqin Kang

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Reviewer suggestion.docx

A Comprehensive Investigation of the Reaction Behaviorial Features of Coke with Different CRIs in the Simulated Cohesive Zone of a Blast Furnace

PONE-D-20-19167R1

Dear Dr. Lv,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Dr Mohsen Sarafraz

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: