Reduction of Iron Ore Pellets, Sinter, and Lump Ore under Simulated Blast Furnace Conditions

A blast furnace (BF) is the dominant process for making iron in the world. The BF is charged with metallurgical coke and iron burden materials including iron ore pellets, sinter, and lump ore. While descending in the BF the charge materials reduce. The iron-bearing materials should reduce fast and remain in the solid form until as high a temperature as possible to ensure reaction contact with reducing gas and iron oxides. Herein, the reducibility of the iron ore pellet, sinter, and lump ore in the BF shaft are focused on. The experiments are conducted isothermally with a blast furnace simulator (BFS) high-temperature furnace at four different temperatures (700, 800, 900, and 1000 degrees C) for 300 min. The experimental atmosphere consists of CO, CO2, H-2, H2O, and N-2 simulating the conditions in the BF shaft. It is found that lump ore has lowest reduction rate in all test conditions, and at lower temperatures iron ore pellets reduce faster than sinter, and this is reversed at higher temperatures. Furthermore, the reduction rate of sinter and iron ore pellets begins to resemble each other at higher temperatures.