Effects of MgO on densification and consolidation of oxidized pellets

The calcined magnesite was utilized as a kind of MgO bearing additive to produce MgO bearing pellets. The effects of MgO on densification and consolidation of pellets were investigated. The experimental results show that, at the same process parameters, the porosity and pore size distribution of green pellets have no evident relation with the MgO bearing additive, pore size of green pellets is between 15 mu m and 35 mu m and the porosity of green pellets is about 34%. There is a densification and consolidation phenomenon during the induration process; the pore size and porosity of product pellets decrease gradually; and the structure of product pellets becomes dense. MgO makes a negative effect on the densification and consolidation of product pellets, the densification ratio of pellets decreases from 46.3% to 28.6% with the addition of MgO bearing additive from 0 to 2.0 %. The porosity and the pore size of product pellets increase gradually with the increase of MgO content; When the mass fraction of MgO bearing additive increases from 0 to 2.0%, the pore size of product pellet increases and the pore size distributes in a large range. Also, the porosity increases from 18.61% to 24.06%.