Abstract
Factors affecting the bonding efficiency of bentonite during pelletising were investigated. Results show that it is influenced by the properties of bentonite, water and iron ore concentrate. The dosage of bentonite can be halved by exchanging cations in the interlayer to activate bentonite, removing bivalent cations to soften the water and milling the mixture to advance the contact condition between the concentrate and bentonite. The use of an organic binder to reduce the bentonite dosage was also studied. The experiment shows that using an organic binder for preparing pellets will decrease the strength of the fired pellets. Taking the measure of milling the mixture damply can improve the strength of the fired pellets so that adding every 0·01% organic binder can reduce bentonite by 0·33%.
The authors want to express their thanks to the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (grant no. NCET-05-0630), the Program for Excellent Doctor’s Degree Paper in Central South University and the project (no. 1343/74333001114) supported by the Postgraduate’s Paper Innovation Fund of Hunan Province, China, for the financial support of this research.