Abstract
Specular iron ores are medium grade iron ores suitable to use in agglomeration process. However, due to their hard texture, undesirable particle size and shape, poor assimilation performance and low reactivity at high temperature, its uses in agglomeration is very limited and restricted to almost 3-10% at most of the plant. In the present study effect of specular iron ore on sintering performance and sinter qualities are examined. It was observed that an increased proportion of specular iron ore in sinter blend has shown poor sintering performance in both laboratory scale studies and plant scale trials. In the present work, effect of blending of specular iron ore with goethite iron ore in sinter mix on sintering performance is examined and an optimum iron ore blend ratio for sustainable performance and quality is proposed. To increase the specular iron ore usage in sintering, goethitic iron ore up to 30% is introduced in sinter blend to overcome the deteriorating nature of specular iron ore. The goethite iron ore contains chemically bonded water which gets removed at higher temperatures (300-500°C) during sintering. The evaporated water gets cooled at lower bed and condenses which retards the air flow during sintering process and thus the combustion zone stays for longer time allowing better melt assimilation and sinter qualities. The poor melt assimilation of specularite is thus countered in presence of goethite iron ore. Having better reactive and hydrophilic nature of goethite iron ore, nullifying or reducing the ill effect of poor reactive and hydrophobic characteristics of specular iron ore during granulation and sintering process. Due to the which, the blended specular and goethite iron ore resulted in improved sintering rate and consequently improved sinter productivity. The present work proposed usage of up to 30% of specular iron ore when blended with goethite iron ore in sinter making.
Keywords
References
Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media.
The Author(s) warrant that their manuscript is their original work that has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; and that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities at the institution where the work was carried out. The Author(s) affirm that the article contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of others. The author(s) also affirm that they hold no conflict of interest that may affect the integrity of the Manuscript and the validity of the findings presented in it. The Corresponding author, as the signing author, warrants that he/she has full power to make this grant on behalf of the Author(s). Any software contained in the Supplemental Materials is free from viruses, contaminants or worms.The published articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA).
Authors are permitted to deposit publisher's version (PDF) of their work in an institutional repository, subject-based repository, author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), and/or departmental website at any time after publication.
Upon receiving the proofs, the Author(s) agree to promptly check the proofs carefully, correct any typographical errors, and authorize the publication of the corrected proofs.
The Corresponding author agrees to inform his/her co-authors, of any of the above terms.