Development of Direct Reduced Iron in China:Challenges and Pathways

The steel industry is considered an important basic sector of the national economy,and its high energy consumption and carbon emissions make it a major contributor to climate change,especially in China.The majority of crude steel in China is produced via the energy-and carbon-intensive blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace(BF–BOF)route,which greatly relies on coking coal.In recent years,China’s steel sector has made significant progress in energy conservation and emission reduction,driven by decarbonization policies and regulations.However,due to the huge output of crude steel,the steel sector still produces 15%of the total national CO_(2) emissions.The direct reduced iron(DRI)plus scrap–electric arc furnace(EAF)process is currently considered a good alternative to the conventional route as a means of reducing CO_(2) emissions and the steel industry’s reliance on iron ore and coking coal,since the gas-based DRI plus scrap–EAF route is expected to be more promising than the coal-based one.Unfortunately,almost no DRI is produced in China,seriously restricting the development of the EAF route.Here,we highlight the challenges and pathways of the future development of DRI,with a focus on China.In the short term,replacing natural gas with coke oven gas(COG)and byproduct gas from the integrated refining and chemical sector is a more economically feasible and cleaner way to develop a gas-based route in China.As the energy revolution proceeds,using fossil fuels in combination with carbon capture,utilization,and storage(CCUS)and hydrogen will be a good alternative due to the relatively low cost.In the long term,DRI is expected to be produced using 100%hydrogen from renewable energy.Both the development of deep processing technologies and the invention of a novel binder are required to prepare high-quality pellets for direct reduction(DR),and further research on the one-step gas-based process is necessary.

Review on biomass metallurgy:Pretreatment technology,metallurgical mechanism and process design

The metallurgy industry consumes a considerable amount of coal and fossil fuels,and its carbon dioxide emissions are increasing every year.Replacing coal with renewable,carbon-neutral biomass for metallurgical production is of great significance in reducing global carbon consumption.This study describes the current state of research in biomass metallurgy in recent years and analyzes the concept and scientific principles of biomass metallurgy.The fundamentals of biomass pretreatment technology and biomass metallurgy technology were discussed,and the industrial application framework of biomass metallurgy was proposed.Furthermore,the economic and social advantages of biomass metallurgy were analyzed to serve as a reference for the advancement of fundamental theory and industrial application of biomass metallurgy.

Defects of (Tb_(0.3)Dy_(0.7))Fe_(1.95) Alloys with "One-Step" Directional Solidification Process

The main types of defect in the (Tb_(0.3)Dy_(0.7))Fe_(1.95) alloys with the 'one-step' directional solidification process were investigated. The effect of the dendrite, grain boundaries, twin boundaries, and REFe_3 precipitates on the magnetostrictive response of the (Tb_(0.3)Dy_(0.7))Fe_(1.95) alloys was analyzed respectively. The experiment results demonstrate that the dendrite, twin boundaries, and REFe_3 precipitates can be avoided by modifying alloying ingredient, solidification parameters and annealing technique. The dendritic growth front often leads to dendrite sheet, rare earth-rich phase, and twin boundaries. The lower proportion of rare earth, or slow solidification rate, results in the occurrence of REFe_3 precipitatates. It is vital for diminishing the defects to control the undercooling of solid-liquid interface at (2.4～5.1)×10~4 K·s·cm^(-2) so that the crystal grows in cellular growth front.

LncRNAs:Current understanding,future directions,and challenges

1|CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF LNCRNAS Long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)are a class of regulatory RNA molecules that have captured the attention of researchers in recent years due to their diverse roles in development,physiological and pathological processes.

MICROSTRUCTURE OF BINARY Mg-Al EUTECTIC ALLOY WIRES PRODUCED BY THE OHNO CONTINUOUS CASTING PROCESS

Directionally solidified binary Mg-Al eutectic alloy wires of approximately 5 mm in diameter were produced by the Ohno continuous casting （OCC） process and the microstructure was examined. It was found that the wires possess obvious unidirectional growth characteristic along its axial direction. The microstructure consists of parallel columnar grains that resulted from the competitive growth of equiaxed grains solidified on the head of dummy bar. Each columnar grain comprises regular eutectic a-Mg and β-Mg17 Al12 phases, which grew along the axial direction of the wires. The morphology of the eutectic is mainly lamellar, meanwhile rod eutectic exists. The formation of rod eutectic was attributed to the ＂bridging effect＂ caused by incidental elements in the alloy.

Estimating DOA and polarization with spatially spread loop and dipole pair array

The nonuniform L-shaped spatially spread loop and dipole（SSLD） array whose inter-element spacing is greater than half a wavelength is studied. A joint parameter estimation algorithm of direction of arrival（DOA）, frequency and polarization is presented for plane-wave signals. The direct sampling and the corresponding delayed sampling data are used to construct the data correlation matrix. On the basis of the subspace theory and the least square method, the frequency and the steering vector of the whole array are obtained. According to the relationship of the array manifold vector between electric dipoles and magnetic loops,the polarization parameters are given. The unambiguous phase estimates are acquired by applying virtual baseline array transformation to the spatial steering vectors, and they are used as coarse references to disambiguate the cyclic phase ambiguities in phase differences between two adjacent array elements on the array,then the high accuracy DOA estimates are obtained. Closed-form solutions for each parameter are obtained. This method has advantages of lower calculation complexity and no parameter matching. The experiment results verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the presented algorithm.

RESEARCH ON LASER DIRECT DEPOSITION PROCESS OF Ti-6Al-4V ALLOY

Laser direct deposition （LDD） of metallic components is an advanced technology of combining CAD/CAM （computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing）, high power laser, and rapid prototyping. This technology uses laser beam to melt the powders fed coaxiaUy into the molten pool by the laser beam to fabricate fuUy dense metallic components. The present article mainly studies the LDD of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, which can be used to fabricate aircraft components. The mechanical properties of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy, fabricated by LDD, are obtained using the tension test, and the oxygen content of used powders and deposited specimens are measured. In the present article, it can be seen that the mechanical properties obtained using this method are higher than the ones obtained by casting, and equal to those got by wrought anneal. One aircraft part has been made using the LDD process. Because of this aircraft part, with sophisticated shape, the effect of the laser scanning track on the internal soundness of the deposited part was discussed.

Fabrication of lotus-type porous Mg−Mn alloys by metal/gas eutectic unidirectional solidification

Lotus-type porous Mg–xMn(x=0,1,2 and 3 wt.%)alloys were fabricated by metal/gas eutectic unidirectional solidification(the Gasar process).The effects of Mn addition and the fabrication process on the porosity,pore diameter and microstructure of the porous Mg-Mn alloy were investigated.Mn addition improved the Mn precipitates and increased the porosity and pore diameter.With increasing hydrogen pressure from 0.1 to 0.6 MPa,the overall porosity of the Mg-2wt.%Mn ingot decreased from 55.3%to 38.4%,and the average pore diameter also decreased from 2465 to 312μm.Based on a theoretical model of the change in the porosity with the hydrogen pressure,the calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental results.It is shown that this technique is a promising method to fabricate Gasar Mg–Mn alloys with uniform and controllable pore structure.

COMPUTATIONALLY EFFICIENT ESPRIT METHOD FOR DIRECTION FINDING

In this paper,a low complexity ESPRIT algorithm based on power method and Orthogo- nal-triangular (QR) decomposition is presented for direction finding,which does not require a priori knowledge of source number and the predetermined threshold (separates the signal and noise ei- gen-values).Firstly,according to the estimation of noise subspace obtained by the power method,a novel source number detection method without eigen-decomposition is proposed based on QR de- composition.Furthermore,the eigenvectors of signal subspace can be determined according to Q matrix and then the directions of signals could be computed by the ESPRIT algorithm.To determine the source number and subspace,the computation complexity of the proposed algorithm is approximated as (2log_2 n+2.67)M^3,where n is the power of covariance matrix and M is the number of array ele- ments.Compared with the Single Vector Decomposition (SVD) based algorithm,it has a substantial computational saving with the approximation performance.The simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness and robustness.

Numerical simulation of the direct reduction of pellets in a rotary hearth furnace for zinc-containing metallurgical dust treatment

A mathematical model was established to describe the direct reduction of pellets in a rotary hearth furnace （RHF）. In the model, heat transfer, mass transfer, and gas-solid chemical reactions were taken into account. The behaviors of iron metallization and dezincification were analyzed by the numerical method, which was validated by experimental data of the direct reduction of pellets in a Si-Mo furnace. The simulation results show that if the production targets of iron metallization and dezincification are up to 80% and 90%, respectively, the furnace temperature for high-temperature sections must be set higher than 1300~ C. Moreover, an undersupply of secondary air by 20% will lead to a decline in iron metallization rate of discharged pellets by 10% and a decrease in dezincing rate by 13%. In addition, if the residence time of pellets in the furnace is over 20 min, its further extension will hardly lead to an obvious increase in production indexes under the same furnace temperature curve.

Nickel release rate of 18KW gold alloy for ornaments

Nickel is widely used as a bleaching element in white gold alloys, but it is a potential allergen. In this paper, a popular 18 KW gold alloy, often called ＂safe nickel,＂ was chosen as the experimental material; its nickel release rates under six different processing conditions were evaluated according to the EN1811 standard. The results reveal that both the surface processing method and heat treatment technology significantly affect the nickel release rate. A coarse surface releases more nickel ions than a smooth surface. The sample normalized at 700 ~C in the single region has a lower nickel release rate than the one treated at 550 ~C in the two-phase phase region, while high temperature normalizing at 800 ~C will accelerate it. All the measured nickel release rates of the experimental material under various processing conditions exceed the permitted threshold value in the Nickel Directive, which indicates that there exists the potential risk of nickel- induced allergy when it is used to make jewelries, espe- cially for piercing types.

Perceived stress among staff in Saudi Arabian dental colleges before and after an accreditation process: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND Accreditation processes are extensively employed to guarantee the quality of higher education institutions.However,this process can potentially generate a stressful atmosphere for staff,thus impacting their ability to perform optimally under pressure.AIM To examine the knowledge of the National Commission for Academic Assessment and Accreditation(NCAAA)and its effects on perceived stress among dental college staff before and after the program accreditation process.METHODS The present cross-sectional questionnaire-based study included 300 employees from three dental colleges.The same employees had to fill out the questionnaire 1 mo after the NCAAA process.RESULTS Approximately 51.33%of the included employees believed that NCAAA is essential to attract quality students to join the program before and after the program.A total of 44.67%felt that their stress was high before,and 31.33%had low stress levels before and after NCAAA.These findings were statistically significant(P≤0.05).CONCLUSION NCAAA raised the prestige of the institution and specific programmes and increased prospects to attract better students,staff,and money,according to the employees.In addition to their needed teaching,research,and other service responsibilities,this work requires a tremendous amount of faculty effort and may cause them stress.

Recovery of iron from copper tailings via low-temperature direct reduction and magnetic separation: process optimization and mineralogical study

Currently, the majority of copper tailings are not effectively developed. Worldwide, large amounts of copper tailings generated from copper production are continuously dumped, posing a potential environmental threat. Herein, the recovery of iron from copper tailings via low-temperature direct reduction and magnetic separation was conducted; process optimization was carried out, and the corresponding mineralogy was investigated. The reduction time, reduction temperature, reducing agent (coal), calcium chloride additive, grinding time, and magnetic field intensity were examined for process optimization. Mineralogical analyses of the sample, reduced pellets, and magnetic concentrate under various conditions were performed by X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry to elucidate the iron reduction and growth mechanisms. The results indicated that the optimum parameters of iron recovery include a reduction temperature of 1150A degrees C, a reduction time of 120 min, a coal dosage of 25%, a calcium chloride dosage of 2.5%, a magnetic field intensity of 100 mT, and a grinding time of 1 min. Under these conditions, the iron grade in the magnetic concentrate was greater than 90%, with an iron recovery ratio greater than 95%.

Explosion limits estimation and process optimization of direct propylene epoxidation with H2 and O2

Direct propylene epoxidation with H2 and O2,an attractive process to produce propylene oxide(PO),has a potential explosion danger due to the coexistence of flammable gases(i.e.,C3 H6 and H2)and oxidizer(i.e.,O2).The unknown explosion limits of the multi-component feed gas mixture make it difficult to optimize the reaction process under safe operation conditions.In this work,a distribution method is proposed and verified to be effective by comparing estimated and experimental explosion limits of more than 200 kinds of flammable gas mixture.Then,it is employed to estimate the explosion limits of the feed gas mixture,some results of which are also validated by the classic Le Chatelier’s Rule and flammable resistance method.Based on the estimated explosion limits,process optimization is carried out using commercially high and inherently safe reactant concentrations to enhance reaction performance.The promising results are directly obtained through the interface called gOPT in gPROMS only by using a simple,easy-constructed and mature packed-bed reactor,such as the PO yield of 13.3%,PO selectivity of 85.1%and outlet PO fraction of 1.8%.These results can be rationalized by indepth analyses and discussion about the effects of the decision variables on the operation safety and reaction performance.The insights revealed here could shed new light on the process development of the PO production based on the estimation of the explosion limits of the multi-component feed gas mixture containing flammable gase s,inert gas and O2,followed by process optimization.

DANIELI concepts and experiences in thin slab casting and rolling technology for HRC production—the evolution of a winning process route to face increasing market requirements

The direct rolling process for hot strip production,where the thin slab caster is connected directly to the mill,has gained market share rapidly because of its remarkable advantages in terms of energy savings and investment cost over the conventional hot strip mills. However,the unquestionable advantages of the first-generation applications of this plant concept also entail significant limitations both in productivity and steel grades that can be produced. Since his first pioneering applications,Danieli considered strategic the development of new technical solutions specifically conceived to overcome these limitations with the goal of increasing plant production volumes and enlarging steel grade product mix,in order to cover the gap between "Conventional mill" and "Thin slab casting and rolling" process routes. In order to reach this goal,Danieli has developed a complete portfolio of plant lay outs adopting Thin Slab Casting and Rolling technologies,each of them conceived to guarantee the optimal CAPEX and OPEX parameters in fitting with market requirements our Customer intend to target.in terms of productivity,steel grades and coil dimension product mix. Danieli TSR(Thin Slab Rolling) fTSR(flexible Thins Slab Rolling) QSP(Quality Strip Production) and ETR(Extra Thin Rolling) plant configurations are analyzed in this paper. With this diversified approach,Danieli solutions are most appropriate answers to thin slab casting and rolling to produce hot rolled coils with superior quality and an extremely diversified range of steel grades. Already,this approach has allowed Danieli plants to:①exceed the threshold production of 3.0 Mt/a with 2 casting strands in operation as done in Tangshan Iron and Steel plant in P.R.China since 2005;②expand the product mix to include virtually all the steel grades used for flat product applications,including the most demanding ones,such as peritectic(in Essar Algoma Canada and Benxi Iron and Steel,China),micro-alloyed,and silicon steels,for the most sophisticated applications,such as automotive and pipe manufacturing,including Arctic applications,(as done in OMK plant in Russia);③extend the range of final strip thicknesses to include ultra thin gauges,down to 0.8 mm(as in Ezz Flat Steel,in Egypt).

Direct Observation of Carrier Transportation Process in InGaAs/GaAs Multiple Quantum Wells Used for Solar Cells and Photodetectors

The resonant excitation is used to generate photo-excited carriers in quantum wells to observe the process of the carriers transportation by comparing the photoluminescence results between quantum wells with and without a p-n junction. It is observed directly in experiment that most of the photo-excited carriers in quantum wells with a p-n junction escape from quantum wells and form photoeurrent rather than relax to the ground state of the quantum wells. The photo absorption coei^cient of multiple quantum wells is also enhanced by a p-n junction. The results pave a novel way for solar cells and photodetectors making use of low-dimensional structure.

A NOVEL UNIVERSAL PREPROCESSING APPROACH FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION DIRECTION-OF-ARRIVAL ESTIMATION

A novel universal preprocessing method is proposed to estimate angles of arrival,which is applicable to one-or two-dimensional high resolution processing based on arbitrarycenter-symmetric arrays (such as uniform linear arrays, equal-spaced rectangular planar arraysand symmetric circular arrays). By mapping the complex signal space into the real one, the newmethod can effectively reduce the computation needed by the signal subspace direction findingtechniques without any performance degradation. In addition, the new preprocessing scheme itselfcan decorrelate the coherent signals received on the array. For regular array geometry such asuniform linear arrays and equal-spaced rectangular planar arrays, the popular spatial smoothingpreprocessing technique can be combined with the novel approach to improve the decorrelatingability. Simulation results confirm the above conclusions.

NEW BOUNDS ON TIME AND NUMBER OF PROCESSORS FOR MULTIPROCESSOR OPTIMAL SCHEDULES

Two problems for task schedules in a multiprocessor parallel system are discussed in Ans paper (1) given a partially ordered set of tasks represented by the venices of an acyclic directed graph with their corresponding processing bines, derive the lower bound on the Annimum time(LBMT) needed to process the task graph for a given number of processors. (2) Determine the lower bound on minimum number of processors(LBMP) needed to complete those tasks in minimum bine. It is shown that the proposed LBMT is sharper than previously Known values and the comPUtational aspeCts of these bounds are also discussed.

Characterisation of a novel, multifunctional, co-processed excipient and its effect on release profile of paracetamol from tablets prepared by direct compression

Objective: To characterise a novel multifunctional pharmaceutical excipient and investigate its ef ect on paracetamol release from tablets prepared by direct compression.Methods: The excipient was prepared by co-processing gelatinized maize starch with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and microcrystalline cellulose in a ratio of 2:1:1, dried and pulverized into powder. The excipient formulated was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and dif erential scanning calorimetry. The excipient was used to prepare batches of tablets by direct compression with drug-excipient ratios of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4. Parameters evaluated on tablets include crushing strength, friability and in vitro dissolution studies. Results: Differential scanning calorimetry analysis revealed a crystalline excipient while Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed no interaction between the excipient and paracetamol. Tablets from all the batches gave average crushing strength values between 3.47 and 4.88 kp. The 1:1 and 1:2 tablet batches were comparable to each other while 1:3 and 1:4 were also comparable to one another in their dissolution proi les. The dissolution parameters of the 1:4 batch was faster with- m∞(90.5%), t50%(3.5 min), t70%(11.6 min) while that of ratio 1:1 was the least with- m∞(48.6%), m5min(23.8%). Their release kinetics followed a KorsmeyerPeppas model with a super case-II transport mechanism.Conclusions: The drug-excipient ratios of 1:3 and 1:4 gave pharmaceutically acceptable tablets that met the British Pharmacopoeia specii cations. The t50% value of the 1:4 batch of tablets may i nd its usefulness in formulating drugs for which a fast onset of action is desired.

Heat Transfer Analysis During "One-Step" Directional Solidification Process for Giant Magnetostrictive Materials

By theoretical analysis of heat transfer during the "one-step" directional solidification process, the functional relation between the temperature in solid-liquid interface and its effect factor was studied. The thermal gradient in solid liquid interface and heat transfer coefficient between the samples and surroundings were also calculated. On the basis of the above analysis, some suggestions for improving the thermal gradient in solid-liquid interface were put forward. It will provide a theoretical instruction for preparing high performance giant magnetostrictive materials (GMM).