In recovery combustion systems operating in the steel industry, energy is provided by boilers burning residual gases of blast furnace and coke oven. To help understand combustion of this particular type of fuels, a numerical study is conducted where the major chemical properties of steel gas flames are collected. The chemical composition of representative fuel and oxidizer steel gas is varied over a large range in calculations using detailed chemistry and complex transport properties. The chemical equilibrium compositions, premixed flame speeds and diffusion flame extinction strain rates are determined. The advantages and shortcomings of the use of vitiated air emerge, and its introduction into the boiler appears as an interesting alternative to reduce NOx emission. The detailed information obtained with laminar flame calculations is also introduced in flamelet turbulent combustion modeling. Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations of a test case burner are performed and some comparisons between numerical predictions and experimental results are presented. q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.