SUMMER TRAINING

MECON LTD,RANCHI

REPORT ON IRON MAKING:-

 BLAST FURNACE
 SINTERING
 PALLETISATION
 DRI

SUBMITTED BY :-

NAME:ROHIT RAI
BRANCH:MECHANICAL ENGG.
REG. NO.: 1301219053
COLLEGE:COLLEGE OF ENGG.
BHUBANESWAR,ODISHA
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my pleasure to be indebted to various people, who directly or

indirectly contributed in the development of this work and who
influenced my thinking, behavior, and acts during the course of study.
I express my sincere gratitude to HRD department worthy
Principal for providing me an opportunity to undergo summer training
at MECON Limited, Ranchi.
I am thankful to MR. RAHUL, SDE for study of
DRI and Agglomeration and his support, cooperation, and motivation
provided to me during the training for constant inspiration, presence
and blessing.
I also extend my sincere appreciation to MR. K.K
SINHA who provided me knowledge about blast furnace and valuable
suggestions and precious time in accomplishing my project report.
Lastly, I would like to thank the almighty and my parents
for their moral support and my friends with whom I shared my day-to-
day experience and received lots of suggestions that improved my
quality of work.

(ROHIT RAI)

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 CONTENT

1.BLAST FURNACE
 INTRODUCTION
 MODERN PROCESS
 PROCESS OF ENGINEERING AND CHEMISTRY

2.AGGLOMERATION
A.SINTERING

 INTRODUCTION
 PRINCIPAL OF SINTER
 PROPERTIES OF SINTER
 PRODUCT OF SINTER
 PLANT FACILITIES
 CHEMICAL REACTION

B. PALLETISATION

 INTRODUCTION
 THERMAL PROCESS
 ADVANTAGES OF PALLET
 PREPARATION OF RAW MATERIAL

3.DIRECT REDUCED IRON

 INTRODUCTION
 REACTION MECHANISM
 TYPES OF DRI
 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY
 PROCESS STRENGHT
 PRODUCT STRENGHTH
 WEAKNESS OF PRODUCT
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 BLAST FURNACE
INTRODUCTION

A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals,
generally iron, but also others such as lead or copper.
In a blast furnace, fuel, ore, and flux (limestone) are continuously supplied through the top of the
furnace, while a hot blast of air(sometimes with oxygen enrichment) is blown into the lower
section of the furnace through a series of pipes called tuyeres, so that the chemical
reactions take place throughout the furnace as the material moves downward. The end products
are usually molten metal and slag phases tapped from the bottom, and flue gases exiting from
the top of the furnace. The downward flow of the ore and flux in contact with an up flow of hot,
carbon monoxide-rich combustion gases is a counter current exchange process.
In contrast, air furnaces (such as reverberates furnaces) are naturally aspirated, usually by the
convection of hot gases in a chimney flue. According to this broad definition, bloomers’ for
iron, blowing houses for tin, and smelt mills for lead would be classified as blast furnaces.
However, the term has usually been limited to those used for smelting iron ore to produce pig
iron, an intermediate material used in the production of commercial iron and steel, and the shaft
furnaces used in combination with sinter plants in base metals smelting.

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MODERN PROCESSES

Blast furnace placed in an installation

1. Iron ore + limestone sinter
2. Coke
3. Elevator
4. Feedstock inlet
5. Layer of coke
6. Layer of sinter, pellets, ore and additives
7. Hot blast (around 1200 °C)
8. Removal of slag
9. Tapping of molten pig iron
10. Slag pot
11. Torpedo car for pig iron
12. Dust cyclone for separation of solid particles
13. Hot Blast Stoves
14. Smoke outlet (can be redirected to carbon capture & storage (CCS) tank)

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15: Waste Heat Recovery system
16. Powdered coal
17. Coke oven
18. Coke
19. BF gas Uptake & Downcomer
Modern furnaces are equipped with an array of supporting facilities to increase efficiency, such as ore
storage yards where barges are unloaded. The raw materials are transferred to the stock house complex by
ore bridges, or rail hoppers and ore transfer cars. Rail-mounted scale cars or computer controlled weight
hoppers weigh out the various raw materials to yield the desired hot metal and slag chemistry. The raw
materials are brought to the top of the blast furnace via a series of conveyers powered by winches or
conveyor belts.

There are different ways in which the raw materials are charged into the blast furnace. Some blast
furnaces use a "double bell" system where two "bells" are used to control the entry of raw material into
the blast furnace. The purpose of the two bells is to minimize the loss of hot gases in the blast furnace.
First, the raw materials are emptied into the upper or small bell which then opens to empty the charge into
the large bell. The small bell then closes, to seal the blast furnace, while the chute rotates to provide
specific distribution of materials before dispensing the charge into the blast furnace. A more recent design

6
is to use a "bell-less" system. These systems use multiple hoppers to contain each raw material, which is
then discharged into the blast furnace through valves. These valves are more accurate at controlling how
much of each constituent is added, as compared to the skip or conveyor system, thereby increasing the
efficiency of the furnace. Some of the bell-less systems also implements a discharge chute in the throat of
the furnace in order to precisely control where the charge is placed.

The iron making blast furnace itself is built in the form of a tall structure, lined with refractory brick, and
profiled to allow for expansion of the charged materials as they heat during their descent, and subsequent
reduction in size as melting starts to occur. Coke, additives, sinter & pellet, and iron ore (iron oxide) are
charged into the top of the furnace in a precise filling order which helps control gas flow and the chemical
reactions inside the furnace. "Uptakes" allow the hot, dirty gas high in carbon monoxide content to exit
the furnace throat, while "bleeder valves" protect the top of the furnace from sudden gas pressure surges.
The coarse particles in the exhaust gas settle in the "dust catcher" and are dumped into a railroad car or
truck for disposal, while the gas itself flows through a venturi scrubber and/or electrostatic precipitators
and a gas cooler to reduce the temperature of the cleaned gas.

The tuyeres are used to implement a hot blast, which is used to increase the efficiency of the blast
furnace. The hot blast is directed into the furnace through water-cooled copper nozzles called tuyeres near
the base. The hot blast temperature can be from 900 °C to 1300 °C (1600 °F to 2300 °F) depending on the
stove design and condition. Oil, tar, natural gas, coal dust and oxygen can also be injected into the furnace
at tuyere level to combine with the coke to release additional energy and increase the percentage of
reducing gases present which is necessary to increase productivity.

PROCESS ENGINEERING &

CHEMISTRY

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Blast furnace diagram
1. Hot blast from Hot blast stoves
2. Melting zone (bosh)
3. Reduction zone of ferrous oxide (barrel)
4. Reduction zone of ferric oxide (stack)
5. Pre-heating zone (throat)
6. Feed of ore, limestone, and coke
7. Exhaust gases
8. Column of ore, coke and limestone
9. Removal of slag
10. Tapping of molten pig iron
11. Collection of waste gases
Blast furnaces operate on the principle of chemical reduction whereby carbon monoxide, having a
stronger affinity for the oxygen in iron ore than iron does, reduces the iron to its elemental form. Blast
furnaces differ from bloomeries and reverberatory furnaces in that in a blast furnace, flue gas is in direct
contact with the ore and iron, allowing carbon monoxide to diffuse into the ore and reduce the iron oxide
to elemental iron mixed with carbon. The blast furnaces operate as a countercurrent exchange process
whereas a bloomery does not. Another difference is that bloomeries operate as a batch process while blast
furnaces operate continuously for long periods because they are difficult to start up and shut down. Also,
the carbon in pig iron lowers the melting point below that of steel or pure iron; in contrast, iron does not
melt in a bloomery.

Carbon monoxide also reduces silica which has to be removed from the pig iron. The silica is reacted
with calcium oxide (burned limestone) and forms a slag which floats to the surface of the molten pig iron.
The direct contact of flue gas with the iron causes contamination with sulfur if it is present in the fuel.
Historically, to prevent contamination from sulfur, the best quality iron was produced with charcoal.

The downward moving column of ore, flux, coke or charcoal and reaction products must be porous
enough for the flue gas to pass through. This requires the coke or charcoal to be in large enough particles
to be permeable, meaning there cannot be an excess of fine particles. Therefore, the coke must be strong
enough so it will not be crushed by the weight of the material above it. Besides physical strength of the
coke, it must also be low in sulfur, phosphorus, and ash. This necessitates the use of metallurgical coal,
which is a premium grade due to its relative scarcity.

The main chemical reaction producing the molten iron is:

Fe2O3 + 3CO → 2Fe + 3CO2

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This reaction might be divided into multiple steps; with the first being that preheated blast air blown into
the furnace reacts with the carbon in the form of coke to produce carbon monoxide and heat:
2 C(s) + O2 (g) → 2 CO (g)
The hot carbon monoxide is the reducing agent for the iron ore and reacts with the iron oxide to produce
molten iron and carbon dioxide. Depending on the temperature in the different parts of the furnace
(warmest at the bottom) the iron is reduced in several steps. At the top, where the temperature usually is
in the range between 200 °C and 700 °C, the iron oxide is partially reduced to iron(II,III) oxide, Fe3O4.
3 Fe2O3(s) + CO (g) → 2 Fe3O4(s) + CO2 (g)
At temperatures around 850 °C, further down in the furnace, the iron (II, III) is reduced further to iron (II)
oxide:
Fe3O4(s) + CO (g) → 3 FeO(s) + CO2 (g)
Hot carbon dioxide, unreacted carbon monoxide, and nitrogen from the air pass up through the furnace as
fresh feed material travels down into the reaction zone. As the material travels downward, the counter-
current gases both preheat the feed charge and decompose the limestone to calcium oxide and carbon
dioxide:
CaCO3(s) → CaO(s) + CO2 (g)
The carbon dioxide formed in this process is re-reduced to carbon monoxide by the coke
C(s) + CO2 (g) → 2 CO (g)

The temperature-dependent equilibrium controlling the gas atmosphere in the furnace is called
the Boudouard reaction:

2CO →CO2 + C
The decomposition of limestone in the middle zones of the furnace proceeds according to the following
reaction:
CaCO3 → CaO + CO2
The calcium oxide formed by decomposition reacts with various acidic impurities in the iron
(notably silica), to form a fayalitic slag which is essentially calcium silicate, CaSiO3
SiO2 + CaO → CaSiO3

The "pig iron" produced by the blast furnace has a relatively high carbon content of around 4–5%, making
it very brittle, and of limited immediate commercial use. Some pig iron is used to make cast iron. The
majority of pig iron produced by blast furnaces undergoes further processing to reduce the carbon content
and produce various grades of steel used for construction materials, automobiles, ships and machinery.

The challenge set by the greenhouse gas emissions of the blast furnace is being addressed in an ongoing
European Program called ULCOS (Ultra Low CO2 Steelmaking). Several new process routes have been
proposed and investigated in depth to cut specific emissions (CO2 per ton of steel) by at least 50%. Some
rely on the capture and further storage (CCS) of CO2, while others choose decarbonizing iron and steel

9
production, by turning to hydrogen, electricity and biomass. In the nearer term, a technology that
incorporates CCS into the blast furnace process itself and is called the Top-Gas Recycling Blast Furnace
can be installed with a scale-up to a commercial size blast furnace.

BLAST FURNACE AND ITS

EQUIPMENTS

The different zones of the BF is shown in the above figure. The top portion where charging is done is
called the throat. Beneath the throat, the stack region is shown. The bosh area is also indicated which is
also known as belly.

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 AGGLOMERATION

Agglomeration, the sticking of particles to one another or to solid surfaces, is a natural

phenomenon. For powders and bulk solids, agglomeration can be unwanted, resulting in
uncontrolled build up, caking, bridging, or lumping. It can also be a beneficial process, utilizing
the controlled enlargement of particles to improve powder properties and obtain high-quality
products.
Production of sized lump ore in mechanized mines results in generation of large quantity of ore
fines which as such cannot be charged into furnace. Agglomeration processes such as sintering
and palletizing have been developed to utilize these iron ore fines economically.

Choice of Agglomerating

Process Four types of agglomerating processes have been developed: sintering, pelletizing,
briquetting, and nodulizing. Sintering and pelletizing are the processes of major importance.
Careful evaluation should be made of the processes, the material to be agglomerated, and the
product desired before arriving at a final decision on a commercial installation.

SINTERING

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In technology, a process of obtaining solid and porous material and items from fine powdery or
pulverized materials at a high temperatures. The physicochemical properties and structure of
materials are also frequently altered by sintering. Sintering is used in for example,
agglomeration, coking, the preparation of poorly caking coals for coking, and the production of
ceramics and refractory items.

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It is the process of agglomerating the fine ores into lump of iron ore of a preferable size of 5-40
mm. The sinters so formed have non uniform structure with presence of voids. The structure so
developed makes it having a less crushing strength. It has an iron ore content of 54-59%
depending on its ore. The process of sintering is depicted in the above figure.

Types of sinter
 Acid sinter
The sinter mix does not contain flux at all. This will call for addition of flux in the BF separately.
The production of this type is not prevalent. Self or super fluxed sinter is produced now a day.

 Fluxed sinter
The amount of flux added in the sinter mix so that the basicity of the sinter is equal to that of the
slag to be produced in the furnace. Separate addition of the flux would be required only in the
proportion to the amount of natural lumpy ore charged in the furnace. This type of sinter may be
produced when 100% sinter charge is planned.

 Super fluxed sinter

In most of the modern practices where in high percentage of sinter (50-80%) charge in the
burden is contemplated. A small proportion of natural, good graded and sized ore charged
would also be necessary and practically no separated flux addition may be required if super
fluxed sinter is used. The basicity of super fluxed sinter is usually more than 1.8.
The sintering process is well described below in steps:

 Input to the sinter machine

The various components are taken as input to the sintering process for agglomeration:
1. Iron ore fines: The iron ore fines collected during the mechanical mining processes are
taken for the main component. Their sizes should be less than 8 mm. The plant waste
such as in the case of SMS dust and mill scale are also the input for the process as
these also contain the iron in it.
2. Lime stones and dolomite: These are considered as the additives and are taken as
limited amount during the sintering process. Their sizes should be less than 3 mm.
3. Coke breeze: It is a solid fuel for the sintering process. It is also the reducing agent and
produces the requisite heat for the sintering process.

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Proportioning unit
There are various bins/silos are present which contains the iron ore fines, additives like
limestone, dolomite and the coke breeze. The bins release the different components in a
definite proportion.

Mixing and Nodulizing Unit

The mixing units collect these components and mixes in a high intensity mixer. There is an
arrangement of water sprays to mix the components and to make it slurry. There is a nodulizing
drum which continuously rotates and makes the mixture as nodules.

Sintering Process
After delivery of the ore fines to the steel works the sinter fines are stored and blended in pre-
determined ratios. The blending can be done by mixing appropriate quantities on a conveyor
belt before arrival at the sinter plant or with a blending pile. These piles are constructed by
depositing the different iron ores and fluxes in layers in a longitudinal direction and then
perpendicularly reclaiming them. This method of layering and reclaiming is to ensure a
homogeneous mix.

The sinter feed also contains limestone, return sinter and coke breeze. The blend is mixed in a
rotating drum, where water is added up to 5 to 7% for primary bonding between ore particles. It
is important that the blend has a good permeability, so that air can be sucked through the blend
and the coke breeze (and magnetite) can generate the heat required for the sintering process.
Too low an amount results in a non-uniform permeability and hence, non uniform sinter quality.
Too large an amount decreases the permeability through flooding of the voids which is
aggravated due to re-condensation of water in the lower layers. Amount of water addition
depends on degree of fineness.
For adequate voidage and heat transfer the ore size should not exceed 5-6 mm and coke
and limestone 3 mm. For a given fuel rate, if the coke size is too large, a local overheating,
excessive liquid formation and reduction of iron oxides to difficultly reducible fayalite can
occur. At the same time an inadequate heating at other places will deteriorate sinter bond
strength (formation of pockets of unsintered material). In the case of lime stone as well,
calcination will be incomplete with too large a size which would affect the sinter strength
adversely. For uniformity of sinter quality, both physical and chemical, the coke and limestone
both should be mixed uniformly with the ore before charging. The optimum coke rate varies
between 4-8 percent to give at least 65-70 percent of +12 mm fraction in the finished
sinter. The fuel requirement is higher if the melting temperatures and viscosity of the slag
are high since the intention is to produce a melt which is well-dispersed throughout the
sinter matrix in order to obtain adequate strength. The quantity of the coke breeze used

14
determines this circulating load. Too little coke breeze can cause a large fines circulating
load and low productivity. Too much coke breeze can produce a rock hard sinter with very
low reducibility; also bed slagging problems could curtail productivity. Any exotherm ic
reactions that take place in the mix during sintering must be considered in determining the
coke breeze addition rate. This is particularly true of mixes containing a significant
quantity of mill scale, which oxidizes liberating heat during the sinterin g process. The
amount of limestone added depends upon the basicity, reducibility and strength of the
sinter desired. It is much cheaper to calcine limestone in the sinter strand with low-cost
fuel than in the blast furnace. Lime also increases the reducibility of the sinters greatly.
Return sinter having lower fusion temperature than the raw mix serve as seeds for initiation of
the sintering process.

The blend is deposited in layers of 35 to 65 cm height on the sinter strand (stationary or more
commonly used continuous travelling grate machine (Dwight – Lloyd type)) . The bottom layer is
always made of a small layer (40-50 mm) of coke free return sinter (typical 15 to 25 mm size
range) to prevent the flame front from reaching the sinter cars during final stage as well as to
prevent leakage of the mix through the grate opening. The sintering process starts with
combustion of the coke breeze in the top layer by burning of oil or natural gas through burners
and fans sucking the heated air down through the sinter bed, suction being usually about 800-
1000 mm water gauge depending upon the permeability of the sinter mix. Due to complete
combustion of carbon, a temperature of 1300-1400 Degree C. is easily attained. The heat thus
generated in the bed results in the conversion of ore fines into large, hard, porous lumps.

Cooling unit
The sinter is cooled down by making the pellet car carrying sinter of -200 mm to revolve for
around 60-90mins during which it is blown by the air blower which are installed at regular
coordinates. Hence by the forced convection the heat is carried away. The temperature drops
down to less than 100 0C.

Screening unit
The sinter is crushed to sizes of less than 45 mm. Then the sizes of 40mm, 20mm, 10mm and
5mm are screened. The sizes less than 5mm go to the returned fines. The sizes from 5-10 mm
go to the product distributor which finally goes to the BF stock house. Some of the sinter of size
10-20 mm goes to the hearth layer and rest goes to the product distributor. Again -40mm and
+20mm go to the product distributor.

PELLETISATION

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Pelletisation is the process of agglomeration of ultra fine iron ore particles into lumped one. The
iron fines which can’t be made sinter, are made pellets. The pellets so produced have spheroid
shape and an iron content of around 65%. Hence it will have a high crushing strength and will
emit low greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These are more costly and require high
temperature for its preparation. There is a major difference in the arrangement in the
pelletisation and sintering is that in sintering only the hearth layer is filled whereas in
pelletisation both the hearth and the side layers of a grated bin are filled as the temperature is
much higher in case of pelletisation. The arrangement for induration is of closed type as shown
in the above figure.
The various steps in the pelletisation process are chalk down below:

Additives storage
Additives i.e limestone, bentonite and coke breeze shall be received at site and stored in
covered storage unit. From covered storage unit, the same shall be fed to additive grinding unit
by belt conveyor.
Grinding unit
Ball mills are used for grinding the materials to fine fraction. Grinding mill, if operated in wet
condition, feed the slurry to thickener and filter. In case of dry grinding the fines are dried before
feeding to the mills and the ground materials are conveyed pneumatically to the ground
materials bins.

Additive Preparation
Mostly bentonite is used, a small ball mill is utilized for grinding the material to the required size.
When hydrated lime is used provision is made for calcining and hydration of limestone.

Proportioning and Mixing

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The ground concentrate and additives in required proportion are thoroughly mixed in a mixer.
Slurry/ water is added in the mixing unit.

Pelletizing
The mix materials are pelletized in disc/ drum pelletizers. Water spray is provided to control the
balling. The disc is inclined at an angle of 45-50 0 so as to prevent the material from being
thrown away from the disc as centrifugal force continuously acts during the rotation. The green
pellets from the disc/ drum are screened in roller screens to separate out -6mm pellets for reuse
in the process.

Induration
The induration machine is divided into several zones according to which the processes take
place. The several zones are upper draft zone, down draft zone, pre heating zone, firing zone,
after firing zone, cooling zone 1, and cooling zone 2. The process (feed) starts from the upper
draft zone and ends at the cooling zone 2. The air blower (which blows the air at ambient
temperature) are placed at the cooling zones to bring down the temperatures from 13000C to
less than 1000C. The air cools down the sinter which in results increase the air temperature of
the air drafting through the cooling zone. These heat energy stored in the escalated temperature
of the air is used in the various zones. The less hot air is supplied to upper draft zone and down
draft zone in the up and down direction respectively to dry the green balls (containing 9-10 %
moisture) completely. The more hot air is supplied in the heating zones to fuse the balls. In the
pre heating zone only the temperature of the balls is escalated and fusion occurs whereas in
both the heating zones, fusion takes place. Different air blowers are installed in the arrangement
of the induration machines which supplies air at a definite pressure.

Screening unit
The hardened pellets are screened to separate bed and side layer, return fines and finished
pellets. Return fines are sent to grinding mill and after grinding, the ground material is reused.
Finished product is stored in stockpile and dispatched to consumers.

DIRECT REDUCED IRON

INTRODUCTION
Sponge Iron is iron ore reduced directly in solid state using coal gas, natrual gas or coal as
reductants and is also known as Directly Reduced Iron (DRI). The need for development and
commercialisation of sponge iron manufacturing process arose in late 50's when Electric Arc
Furnaces (EAFs) engaged in manufacturing steel started facing problems of availability of scrap
of desired quality, the traditional source of their iron metallics. The DRI processes soon became
popular and since the inception of first DRI plant in 1957 in Mexico, there has been a continuous
growth of this industry in last three decades. This is evident from the steep rise in world DRI

17
production during the past three decades. India, entered the sponge iron industry only in 1980,
when the coal based DRI plant of Sponge Iron India Limited (SIIL) was commissioned at
Kothagudem, in Andhra Pradesh.

2. The reasons for the tremendous growth of the sponge iron industry world over could be
attributed to the advantages of using sponge iron in electric arc furnaces, partly substituting
scrap, the conventional charge to the furnaces. Further, the use of sponge iron in other steel
manufacturing processes has also been well proven.

The advantages of sponge iron use in EAFs are summarised below:-

 Uniform known composition
 Low levels of residuals/tramp elements
 Capability to maintain phosphorous level in steel within 0.002%
 Maintenance of sulphur in steel by its removal in sponge manufacture.
 Low content of dissolved gases
 Uniform size and higher bulk density as compared to scrap
 Capability of forming protective cover of foamy slag in the bath
 Lower refining requirements of steel produced
 Potential of sensible heat recovery from waste gases
 Possibility of producing variety of steels.

REACTION MECHANISM

In pre-heat zone, the reduction of iron oxide proceeds only to ferrous oxide.
Fe2O3 + CO = 2FeO + CO2……………………………………(1)
Final reduction to metallic iron occurs in the metallization zone by reaction of CO with FeO to
from CO2 and metallic iron.
FeO + CO = Fe + CO2………………………………..(2)
Most of the CO2 reacts with the excess solid fuels in the kiln and is converted to CO according
to the Boudouard reaction,
CO2 + C = 2CO ……………………………………………(3)

DRI generally based on two types:-

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1.Solidreductant or coal based type
2.Gasreductant based type.

We are study only about coal based reductant type of DRI.

Coal Based Direct Reduction process:-

Coal based direct reduction technologies involve reduction of iron oxides in a rotary kiln by
using non-coking coal as reductant. Limestone or dolomite is used as desulphurising agent. The
normal operating practice is to feed the kiln with desired proportion of iron oxide, non-coking
coal and limestone or dolomite. Some processes use optimum quantity of recycle char in the
feed for minimising coal consumption. The charge is preheated in the preheat zone and the
reduction of iron ore is effected by reducing gases derived from coal gasification. The heat for
the process is provided by burning coal volatiles and excess carbon monoxide emerging from
the charge. This is done by introducing controlled quantity of air in the kiln free board along the
preheat and reduction zones of the kiln. Part of coal is introduced from the kiln discharge end to
supply energy at discharge end, maintaining reducing atmosphere at discharge end to prevent
reoxidation of DRI and for controlling degree of metallisation and carbon content of DRI. The
separation of the product is more or less similar in all the coal based processes and involves
screening and magnetic separation for removal of non magentic ash, char and used
desulphuriser.

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Different types of coal based DRI technology:-
SL/RN, CODIR, DRC, ACCAR, TDR and Jindal's are the available coal based DR processes
and the two main operations where different technologies use different techniques are
feeding/blowing coal and introduction of air for the process.
Raw Material:-
Direct reduction processes are very sensitive to chemical and physical characteristics of raw
materials used in the process. Iron ore or pellets, reductant natural gas or non-coking coal and
limestone/dolomite are the main raw materials. For the successful operations the process
licensors of DR technology have specified the characteristics of the raw materials to be used in
the process. The quality requirements of the raw materials in general are:
Iron Ore : Lumps or pellets with high iron content, low gangue content, good mechanical
strength, readily reducible and of non decrepitating variety.
Non-coking Coal : These are the reductants in the process. The characteristic desired for non-
coking coal are that the non-coking coals should have high fixed carbon content and high
volatiles content. Ash, sulphur and moisture in coal should be low. The ash fusion point of coal
is required to be high. The coal should be highly reactive and should have low coking and
swelling indices.
Limestone and Dolomite : These should have lime or lime and magnesia content of 45% or
above. The grain size of raw materials is also important factor in direct reduction process.

Advantages of ROTARY KILN process

Process Strengths
Rotary kiln process has to compete mainly with the shaft process of making sponge iron and in
some cases with iron making blast furnace. As compared to them, the rotary kiln has some
advantages, as also some limitations, both with respect to the process and the product it makes.
The major process strengths of rotary kiln are:
(i) A rotary kiln can mix the solid charge as it heats and reduces it. Simultaneous mixing
helps in the dilution of CO2 concentration formed around the iron ore/sponge iron
particles – which is necessary for the reduction reaction to proceed.
(ii) As a large freeboard volume is available above the solid charge (about 85%), the rotary
kiln can tolerate heavily dust-laden gas. When the kiln is suitably designed, it would be
best suited for utilising the Indian high ash non-cooking coals. In shaft reactors,

20
 generation of such dust leads to choking and channelling which leads finally to
disruption of the process.
(iii) Rotary kiln can serve the dual purpose of a coal gasifier as well as an ore reducer.
Preparation of reducing gas from coal is an expensive step, which is coming in the way
of commer- cialisation of coal gasification based DR process. Therefore, rotary kiln DR
process has proved commercially viable, even with low productivity perunit volume,
because of this capability to perform two different functions simultaneously.
(iv) In comparison to blast furnace, the temperature of reduction of iron oxide is much
lower in rotary kiln (about 1000oC as against 1500 to 2000oC in blast furnace). This
means that much less energy is required for bringing the reactants to the temperature of
reaction.

Product Strengths

Additionally the strengths of the product made by rotary kiln are:

(i) It is easy to desulphurise iron ore while making sponge iron. Consequently the sponge iron
of much lower sulphur content can be produced as compared to blast furnace hot metal.
For shaft process of sponge iron making, prior and meticulous de-sulphurisation of natural
gas is necessary to prevent poisoning of catalyst used for reforming.
(ii) Sponge iron produced from rotary kiln is obtained in close granular size range. This
permits charging in electric or other steel making furnaces in a continuous manner,
obviating the need for opening and closing of roof. Continuous charging permits partial
refining during melting stage as the particle passes through the slag layer into the mixed
layer. If adequate melting energy is available, refining time, and consequently, operation
time can be considerably reduced.

Weaknesses of the Process

Notwithstanding the above, rotary kiln has a number of weaknesses. These are coming in the
way of its wide acceptability. The main process related weaknesses of rotary kiln are:

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(i) It has very low productivity. Shaft furnaces, which make sponge iron, give upto five times
more output than rotary kilns of same inner volume. Productivity in rotary kiln is
consequently much lower.
(ii) The rotating reactor makes it difficult to incorporate process control and quality control
systems. Energy saving measures, such as use of pre-heated air, are difficult to
incorporate. To prevent ingress of atmospheric air an elaborate sealing system is required,
which has made the reactor very “engineering intensive”.
(iii) The ROTARY Kiln DR process has low energy efficiency. The stored energy in sponge iron
is about 1.7 GCal per tonne, while energy usually spent in making it in rotary kiln is about 6
GCal per tonne. Among other things, a lot of energy goes out in waste gases (over 2 GCal
per tonne).
(iv) The RKDR process produces some sponge iron in fine form (-3 mm) which is a little difficult
to utilise in electric furnaces. While much of the fines are generated due to the nature of ore
used, the situation is aggravated by the tumcbling action within the rotary kiln, which forces
softer particles to break down further.

Weakness of the product

In addition the sponge iron made by rotary kiln has the following
weaknesses:
I. For charging in electric furnaces in substantial quantities, a system of continuous
charging needs to be installed. This would mean an additional investment for the
existing units, which are not having this facility.
II. The sponge iron from rotary kiln has much lower carbon content (usually 0.2%) than
either the sponge iron from shaft furnace (0.7 to 2%) or the hot metal from blast furnace.
Carbon in sponge iron not only helps in adding to the opening carbon in molten bath, it
also carries in chemical energy, which helps in reducing the consumption of electric
power. Too low a carbon content comes in the way of a healthy carbon boil and,
therefore, bath carburisers need to be added. Clean carburisers are costly while coke,
char or pig iron carries with it undesirable elements like sulphur and phosphorous.
III. Sponge iron from rotary kiln carries with it more gangue and phosphorous than those
from shaft furnace, mainly because shaft furnace uses cleaner inputs. Gangue and

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 phosphorous contents are much higher than they are in iron and steel scrap, which
means extra inputs of phosphorous and slag in electric furnaces.
IV. When we compare with scrap and pig iron, all sponge irons are prone to re- oxidation
and the product from rotary kiln is no exception. However,
rotary kiln sponge iron is much less susceptible to re-oxidation as compared to sponge
iron from shaft units using reformed gases. Those who have ventured into sponge iron
have to endeavour to exploit the strengths of RKDR to the fullest extent and would have
to try to mitigate the effects of its weaknesses suitably.

Those who contemplate venturing into sponge iron have to make a thorough analysis as
to whether the strengths outweigh the disadvantages or not in the scenario they are
finding themselves in. It becomes the duty of the process developers to put in
innovations, which make greater use of the strengths and minimise to the extent possible
the weaknesses of RKDR.

There are many basic aspects, which need to be considered for making
sponge iron in rotary kiln, the important ones being:
 Thermodynamics of reduction and gasification reactions (ii) Characteristics of raw
materials and their role in the process (iii) Reaction kinetics, roles of reducibility of iron
ore and reactivity of coal char and thereby the basis of selection of iron ore and coal (iv)
Movement of solids in the rotary kiln and its residence time (v) Gas evolution and flow
rate (vi) Heat transfer, temperature profile and process model

Gas Based Processes

The direct reduction processes utilizing gaseous reductants are MIDREX, HYL, FINMET,
DANAREX and ENERGIRON. Energiron is essentially a re-incarnation of HYL technology with
Danieli’s engineering support.

Today gas based DR plants subscribe to more than 70% of installed DR capacity in the world,
of which MIDREX and HYL together have about 68% of the total capacity to their credit.

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MIDREX PROCESS

Introduction

Midland Ross Corporation of Cleveland, USA, originally developed the MIDREX process in
1967.

MIDREX plants are available in capacities between 250,000-1,760,000tpa and are also ready to
offer plant of 2.2Mtpa (Super Megamod module) capacity. The first Midrex process based DR
Plant came into existence in 1971 at Hamburg, Germany.

Midrex is presently the most widely accepted DR process in the world. In 2013, 61 modules of
different capacities spread over in 14 countries are operating with a combined capacity of over
47 million tonnes. Plants using Midrex direct reduction process account for 60% of the total
sponge production in the world.

Midrex incorporated for the first time hot briquetting facility in the world in 1984 at Sabah,
Malaysia.

Process Description
This process uses a counter current shaft reactor where iron ore lump and pellet charged from
the top are reduced to DRI by the ascending reducing gas. Reducing gas is generated by
reformation of natural gas with the top gas. The reducing gas enters the shaft at a temperature
of 850-1,000 Deg.C at a pressure of 0.8-1.2 atg.

The product cooling is done at the bottom of the shaft by cooling gas. Alternatively, the hot
discharge from the bottom of the shaft can be briquetted. The metallisation and carbon content
achieved varies from 92-94% and 1.5-2.5% respectively. The specific consumption of natural
gas achieved is less than 2.4GCal/t of sponge iron. The MIDREX flow diagram is shown below.

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Available module sizes
Typically Midrex offers the following module sizes :

Sl. Module Nominal Yearly Production

No. Furnace
DRI HBI
ID (m)

1. MINIMODTM 4.25 - -

2. 5.0m MIDREXTM 5.0 800,000 700,000

Shaft Furnace

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 3. 5.5m MIDREXTM 5.5 1,000,000 900,000

Shaft Furnace

4. MEGAMODTM 6.5/6.65 1,600,000 1,450,000

5. SUPER MEGAMODTM 7.5 2,700,000 2,500,000

Assumptions :

 Use of 100 percent coated CVRD grade pellets or equivalent

 Double bustle design
 Thin wall refractory for all modules except SUPER MEGAMOD
 900OC or higher operating temperature
 Experienced plant operators
 Sufficient briquetting capacity for HBI production

HYL

Introduction

The Hojalata Y Lamina (HYL) process, developed in Mexico, became the first commercially
successful process for production of sponge iron by setting up an industrial scale plant of
100,000tpa capacity in Monterrey, Mexico in 1957. This process was initially a batch process.
Over the years, several improvements were made in the original HYL process, now referred to
as HYL-I process. The changes made were primarily directed towards decreasing energy
consumption, improving the quality and uniformity of the product and increasing plant reliability.
This resulted in the development of a more efficient HYL-III process (NOW REBRANDED AS
ENERGIRON) in 1979 utilising counter current single moving bed reactor in place of four fixed
bed reactors.

The self reforming configuration of the HYL process has been in operation since April 1998 at
Hylsamex Flat process divison in Monterrey, Mexico.

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HYL plants are available in capacities between 200,000tpa and 2,500,000tpa capacity. The first
HYL-III plant came into operation in 1980 in Mexico.

In 2013, 18 modules of HYL plants comprising both HYL-I and III are operating which are
spread over 9 countries and have a combined capacity of around 14.0 Mtpa.

Process Description

HYL process was earlier based on static bed reactors working on batch process (HYL-I).
However, now the process is completely modified to utilise the counter current shaft furnace and
is designated as HYL-III (Tenova HYL) process. HYL-I process is no more marketed.

Tenova HYL process employs a continuous shaft reactor. Iron ore lump and pellet are charged
from the top of the reactor which while travelling downwards are reduced to DRI by the
ascending reducing gas. Reducing gas is generated by reforming natural gas by steam. The top
gas can be recycled as a part of reducing gas after stripping of CO 2. The reducing gas enters
the shaft at a temperature of 900-980 Deg.C and 4.5 atg. pressure.

Product cooling is carried out at the bottom of the shaft by means of cooling gas. Alternatively,
hot briquetting can be adopted. Metallisation and carbon contents of the product are typically in
the range of 92-96% and 1.0-4.5% respectively. The Tenova HYL process flow diagram is
shown BELOW.

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Available module sizes

Typically HYL offers the following module sizes :

i) 200,000tpa (mini-module)
ii) 500,000tpa
iii) 750,000tpa
iv) 2,000,000tpa
v) 2,500,000 tpa

Major facilities of Gas based plant

a) Direct reduction furnace

b) Hot DRI discharge with hot DRI transport and/or hot briquetting system
c) Process dust collection system
d) Reformer/Auto reformation within reactor/Coal gasification unit for production of
synthesis gas
e) Recuperator and flue gas system
f) Gas scrubber and cooler
g) Process gas compressors and blowers
h) Water system
i) Effluent treatment system
j) Natural gas system
k) Inert gas/seal gas system
l) Compressed air system
m) Steam facilities (for HYL-III plant only)
n) CO2 removal system (for DANAREX process)
o) Electrical equipment
p) Instrumentation
q) Raw material, product storage & handling system
r) Repair shop and laboratory
s) Ventilation and dedusting system.

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