The Influence of Fuel Reactivity on Iron Ore Sintering

An experimental program conducted at CSIRO showed that flame front speed (ffs) and sinter productivity increased with fuel reactivity (r) while sinter strength and fuel utilisation fell. The following relationship modelled flame front speed for a JSM style sinter mix over a fuel reactivity range of 1x10(-5) g/g/s to 4x10(-3) g/g/s: ffs=0.2014.In(r)+4.039, R-2=0.997 where ffs is flame front speed (cm/min) and r is fuel reactivity (g/g/s). The CSIRO research concluded that rapid heating of the lower bulk density green granules and endothermic fuel gasification preceding the flame front are dominant factors that contribute to changes in flame front speed. While productivity was significantly increased, less time at temperature reduced sinter strength and gasification contributed to poor fuel utilisation under the standard sintering conditions used for the experiments. A range of changes to sinter mixes and sintering conditions are proposed to overcome the negative aspects of increased fuel reactivity while continuing to exploit the positives.