A novel approach to enhance decrepitation temperature and reducibility of ultrafine iron ore concentrate pellets

Utilizing ultrafine iron ore concentrate for pellet production can expand domestic iron ore resources in China and promote the utilization of low-grade ores.However,a challenge arises with the low decrepitation temperature and reducibility in the preparation process of ultrafine iron ore concentrate pellets.To address the challenge,a novel approach was proposed,which incorporated straw powder as an additive to enhance pellet porosity,thereby improving the decrepitation temper-ature and reducibility of ultrafine iron ore concentrate pellets.The effect of varying proportions of straw powder(0.0-2.0%)on the characteristics of ultrafine iron ore concentrate pellets was examined.Results indicate that at a 2.0%straw powder ratio,pellet decrepitation temperature notably rises from 380 to 540℃,while the reducibility index escalates from 25.7%to 48.1%.Nevertheless,the addition of straw powder results in diminished drop strength,compressive strength of green pellets,and cold crushing strength of fired pellets.In addition,enhanced pellet reducibility leads to exacerbated reduction swelling index and reduction degradation index.Despite these effects,all parameters remain within an acceptable range.

Effects of embedding direct reduction followed by magnetic separation on recovering titanium and iron of beach titanomagnetite concentrate

Embedding direct reduction followed by magnetic separation was conducted to fully recover iron and titanium separately from beach titanomagnetite （TTM）. The influences of reduction conditions, such as molar ratio of C to Fe, reduction time, and reduction temperature, were studied. The results showed that the TTM concentrate was reduced to iron and iron-titanium oxides, depending on the reduction time, and the reduction sequence at 1 200℃ was suggested as follows ： Fe2.75 Ti0.25O4→Fe2TiO4→FeTiO3→FeTi2O5. The reduction temperature played a considerable role in the reduction of TTM concentrates. Increasing temperature from 1 100 to 1 200℃ was beneficial to recovering titanium and iron, whereas the results deteriorated as temperature increased further. The results of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses showed that low temperature （≤1100℃） was unfavorable for the gasification of reductant, resulting in insufficient reducing atmosphere in the reduction process. The molten phase was formed at high temperatures of 1250-1 300℃, which accelerated the migration rate of metallic particles and suppressed the diffusion of reduction gas, resulting in poor reduction. The optimum conditions for reducing TTM concentrate are as follows： molar ratio of C to Fe of 1.68, reduction time of 150 min, and reduction temperature of 1 200℃. Under these conditions, direct reduction iron powder, assaying 90.28 mass% TFe and 1.73 mass% TiO2 with iron recovery of 90.85%, and titanium concentrate, assaying 46.24 mass% TiO2 with TiO2 recovery of 91.15%, were obtained.