Effective preparation of blast furnace burdens from superfine iron concentrates by composite agglomeration process

In this study, the composite agglomeration process (CAP) was verified to be an effective route for preparing blast furnace burdens from superfine iron concentrates. It was found that under the conditions of moisture content of matrix feed 8.2 wt-%, coke breeze dosage of 4.0 wt-%, pelletized feed proportion of 40 wt-% and composite basicity (CaO/SiO2) of 1.98, a sintering yield of 82.11 wt-%, tumbler index of 71.33 wt-% and productivity of 1.83 t (m(2) h)(-1) were achieved by CAP, which is 14.38, 14.55 and 22.82% higher than that by traditional sintering process (TSP), respectively. Meanwhile, the CAP decreased the solid fuel consumption by 5.6 kg(coke)/t(product). The metallurgical properties results showed that the CAP product could be used as high-quality blast furnace burdens. Owing to the excellent agglomeration indexes and low solid fuel consumption, the CAP is expected to have widespread applications in the preparation of blast furnace burdens from superfine iron concentrates.