Preparation of blast furnace burdens with middle-low basicity from high-SiO₂-content iron concentrates by composite agglomeration process (CAP)

ABSTRACT

With the depletion of high-grade iron ores, iron and steel companies all over the world are expected to use refractory iron ore resources in the sintering process. Composite agglomeration process (CAP) was utilised to improve the sintering performances of high-SiO₂-content iron concentrates in this study. Theoretical calculation indicates that CAP is more effective for the agglomeration of high-SiO₂-content iron concentrates compared with traditional sintering process (TSP). The sintering pot tests results showed that the sintering yield of 74.15 wt-%, tumbler index of 72.75 wt-% and productivity of 1.54 t·(m²·h)⁻¹ were achieved, which is 9.12 wt-%, 10.70 wt-% and 0.45 t·(m²·h)⁻¹ higher than that by TSP, respectively. Moreover, CAP decreased the solid fuel consumption by 11.77 kgfuel/tproduct. Researches of metallurgical performances showed the CAP product can be used as high-quality blast furnace burdens. This investigation provides an effective route to utilise the inferior high-SiO₂-content iron concentrates.

KEYWORDS:

• High-SiO₂-content iron concentrates
• composite agglomeration process
• sintering
• middle-low basicity
• blast furnace burden

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

G. H. Li http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8835-8346

Additional information

Funding

The authors express their thanks to the Master’s Research Innovation Project of Central South University [No. 2016zzts465] for financial support of this research.