Characterization and Reduction Behaviors of Iron Ore Pellets for the Application In Iron Making

Abstract

The present project work has been embraced to study reduction and swelling attributes and kinetics of hematite iron ore pellets made from iron ore fines under various conditions.The characterization of chemical, metallurgical and mechanical properties of fired iron ore pellets were studied. The compressive strength and drop number of fired pellets increased with the increasing of fired temperature because of the upgrade in the degree of sintering and solidification of iron ore fines, strength results are matching with the bentonite binder pellets and it is well above the industrially acceptable limit (250 kg/pellet). The drop number of oven dried pellet increased with increase in the percentage of binder up to 3% and then decrease. Effect on porosity with variation of particle size(#72 & #100), firing temperature(9000C & 10000C), and binder percentages(2% - 6%) has been discussed, which shows increase of porosity with increase of particle size, decrease of porosity with increase of firing temperature and binder percentage. The effects of various reduction parameters, for example, temperature, time, addition of binder, firing temperature blending of particles of various sizes on the properties and reduction behavior of resulting iron ore pellets were studied. X-ray diffraction pattern, SEM micrographs and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) of some reduced iron ore pellets were also studied. The percentage reduction of iron ore pellets increased with increasing of reduction temperature and time. The effect of reduction temperature is more pronounced. In the study of reduction kinetics, reaction rate constant and actvation energy at different temperature were determined. XRD and SEM at different reducing temperature shows increase of iron content as increasing temperature and times. EDS analysis tells the composition of reduced pellets that come to be approximately (96:3) (Fe:O) as was desired. Effect of various parameters which effect the reducibility and strength has analyzed and listed. These all shape the subject matter of the thesis.