Effect of pyroxenite and olivine minerals as source of MgO in hematite pellet on improvement of metallurgical properties

Pelletization of hematite ore requires high fineness and very high induration temperature（~1325 ℃） owing to its poor diffusion bonding unlike magnetite ore. Further, high-alumina hematite pellets show very high reduction degradation index（RDI） during low temperature（500-650 ℃） reduction due to their volume expansion and lattice distortion. Noamundi（India） hematite ore contains very high Al2O3（2.3%） with adverse ratio of alumina to silica（~2） for which, it shows very high RDI. In this work, the acid pellets prepared from Noamundi ore fines of optimum Blaine fineness show good cold crushing strength（CCS）. However, it shows very high RDI（77%）. In order to reduce RDI, Mg O in form of two different gangue-containing fluxes, such as pyroxenite and olivine in varying quantities has been added. The optimum requirement and performance of these fluxes has been examined and compared. Both pyroxenite and olivine fluxed pellets show significant lowering of RDI（26% and 23%, respectively） and improvement of other properties, viz CCS, swelling indices etc with good reducibility（70%-77%）. Finally, a good quality acidic hematite pellet was developed from high-alumina ore without using any lime which is very important charge material in combination of basic sinter in blast furnace.

Hydrogen-based direct reduction of industrial iron ore pellets:Statistically designed experiments and computational simulation

As part of efforts to reduce anthropogenic CO_(2) emissions by the steelmaking industry,this study investigated the direct reduction of industrially produced hematite pellets with H_(2) using the Doehlert experimental design to evaluate the effect of pellet diameter(10.5-16.5 mm),porosity(0.36-0.44),and temperature(600-1200℃).A strong interactive effect between temperature and pellet size was observed,indicating that these variables cannot be considered independently.The increase in temperature and decrease in pellet size considerably favor the reduction rate,while porosity did not show a relevant effect.The change in pellet size during the reduction was negligible,except at elevated temperatures due to crack formation.A considerable decrease in mechanical strength at high temperatures suggests a maximum process operating temperature of 900℃.Good predictive capacity was achieved using the modified grain model to simulate the three consecutive non-catalytic gas-solid reactions,considering different pellet sizes and porosities,changes during the reaction from 800 to 900℃.However,for other temperatures,different mechanisms of structural modifications must be considered in the modeling.These results represent significant contributions to the development of ore pellets for CO_(2)-free steelmaking technology.