Effect of Cr_2O_3 addition on the oxidation induration mechanism of Hongge vanadium titanomagnetite pellets

As part of a research project to develop a novel clean smelting process for the comprehensive utilization of Hongge vanadium titanomagnetite（HVTM）, in this study, the effect of Cr2O3 addition on the oxidation induration mechanism of HVTM pellets（HVTMPs） was investigated in detail. The results showed that the compressive strength of the HVTMPs was greatly weakened by the Cr2O3 addition, mainly because of a substantial increase in the porosity of the HVTMPs. The Cr2O3 addition marginally affected the phase composition but greatly affected the microstructural changes of the HVTMPs. Increased amounts of Cr2O3 resulted in a decrease in the uniform distribution of the hematite grains and in an increase in the Fe–Cr solid solutions（Fe1.2Cr0.8O3 and Fe0.7Cr1.3O3） embedded in the hematite grains. Moreover, the compact hematite was destroyed by forming a dispersed structure and the hematite recrystallization was hindered during the oxidation induration, which adversely affected the compressive strength. On the basis of these results, a schematic was formulated to describe the oxidation induration mechanism with different amounts of added Cr2O3. This study provides theoretical and technical foundations for the effective production of HVTMPs and a reference for chromium-bearing minerals.

Reduction behavior and mechanism of Hongge vanadium titanomagnetite pellets by gas mixture of H2 and CO

Hongge vanadium titanomagnetite（HVTM）pellets were reduced by H2-CO gas mixture for simulating the reduction processes of Midrex and HYL-III shaft furnaces.The influences of reduction temperature,ratio ofφ（H2）toφ（CO）,and pellet size on the reduction of HVTM pellets were evaluated in detail and the reduction reaction kinetics was investigated.The results show that both the reduction degree and reduction rate can be improved with increasing the reduction temperature and the H2 content as well as decreasing the pellet size.The rational reduction parameters are reduction temperature of 1050℃,ratio ofφ（H2）toφ（CO）of 2.5,and pellet diameter in the range of 8-11 mm.Under these conditions（pellet diameter of 11mm）,final reduction degree of 95.51% is achieved.The X-ray diffraction（XRD）pattern shows that the main phases of final reduced pellets under these conditions（pellet diameter of 11 mm）are reduced iron and rutile.The peak intensity of reduced iron increases obviously with the increase in the reduction temperature.Besides,relatively high reduction temperature promotes the migration and coarsening of metallic iron particles and improves the distribution of vanadium and chromium in the reduced iron,which is conducive to subsequent melting separation.At the early stage,the reduction process is controlled by interfacial chemical reaction and the apparent activation energy is 60.78kJ/mol.The reduction process is controlled by both interfacial chemical reaction and internal diffusion at the final stage,and the apparent activation energy is 30.54kJ/mol.