Pulverized coal injection technology is widely used in blast furnace ironmaking due to economic, operational and environmental benefits. High burnout within the tuyere and raceway is required for high coal injection rate operation. In order to analyze the flow and combustion in the tuyere and raceway more accurately and reliably, a three-dimensional model of coal combustion is developed. This model is validated against the measurements from two pilot scale test rigs in terms of gas species composition and coal burnout. The gas–solid flow and coal combustion are simulated and analysed. The results indicate that compared to our previous model, the present model is able to provide more detailed gas species distributions and better describe the evolutions of coal particles. It is more sensitive to various parameters and hence more robust in examining various blast furnace operations.