The blast furnace process is the most important process to produce crude iron. The process energy is mainly covered by coke. However, the production of coke is connected with CO2 emissions and high costs. A significant measure to reduce the coke rate and with it the CO2 emissions plus costs is pulverized coal injection (PCI) through the tuyeres into the blast furnace. Further improvements can be achieved by using the Oxycoal+ technology. This article compares and shows the cost effectiveness and the decrease of CO2 emissions with the help of simplified energy balances for the only coke operation of the blast furnace, the operation using PCI and the operation using the Oxycoal+ technology.