STUDY OF NONISOTHERMAL REDUCTION OF IRON ORE-COAL CHAR COMPOSITE PELLET

Cold-bonded composite pellets, consisting of iron ore fines and fines of noncoking coal or char, were prepared by steam curing at high pressure in an autoclave employing inorganic binders. Dry compressive strength ranged from 200 to 1000 N for different pellets. The pellets were heated from room temperature to 1273 K under flowing argon at two heating rates. Rates of evolution of product gases were determined from gas chromatographic analysis, and the temperature of the sample was monitored by thermocouple as a function of time during heating. Degree of reduction, volume change, and compressive strength of the pellets upon reduction were measured subsequently. Degree of reduction ranged from 46 to 99 pct. Nonisothermal devolatilization of coal by this procedure also was carried out for comparison. It has been shown that a significant quantity (10 to 20 pct of the pellet weight) of extraneous H2O and CO2 was retained by dried pellets. This accounted for the generation of additional quantities of H-2 and CO during heating. Carbon was the major reductant, but reduction by H-2 also was significant. Ore-coal and ore-char composites exhibited a comparable degree of reduction. However, the former showed superior postreduction strength due to a smaller amount of swelling upon reduction.