Phosphorus reduction behavior of high-phosphate iron ore during hydrogen-rich sintering

High-phosphorus iron ore resource is considered a refractory iron ore because of its high-phosphorus content and complex ore phase structure. Therefore, the development of innovative technology to realize the efficient utilization of high-phosphorus iron ore resources is of theoretical and practical significance. Thus, a method for phosphorus removal by gasification in the hydrogen-rich sintering process was proposed. In this study, the reduction mechanism of phosphorus in hydrogen-rich sintering, as well as the reduction kinetics of apatite based on the non-isothermal kinetic method, was investigated. Results showed that, by increasing the reduction time from 20 to 60 min, the dephosphorization rate increased from 10.93%to 29.51%. With apatite reduction, the metal iron accumulates, and part of the reduced phosphorus gas is absorbed by the metal iron to form stable iron-phosphorus compounds, resulting in a significant reduction of the dephosphorization rate. Apatite reduction is mainly concentrated in the sintering and burning zones, and the reduced phosphorus gas moves downward along with flue gas under suction pressure and is condensed and adsorbed partly by the sintering bed when passing through the drying zone and over the wet zone. As a result, the dephosphorization rate is considerably reduced. Based on the Ozawa formula of the iso-conversion rate, the activation energy of apatite reduction is 80.42 kJ/mol. The mechanism function of apatite reduction is determined by a differential method (i.e., the Freeman-Carroll method) and an integral method (i.e., the Coats-Redfern method). The differential form of the equation is f(α)=2(1-α)^(1/2), and the integral form of the equation is G(α)=1-(1-α)^(1/2).