A numerical investigation on the hydrogen reduction of wüstite using a 2D mesoscale method

Abstract

The reduction of wüstite (FeO) is the most difficult step in the multi-step of iron oxides, and the basic characteristics of the hydrogen reduction of FeO are particularly important for the low-carbon development in metallurgy. In this work, the hydrogen reduction of pure FeO pellets was studied numerically by a 2D mesoscale method, which was further developed based on the lattice gas model. The method employed the directional probability and reaction probability to describe gas diffusion and reaction, respectively. The method was firstly validated by comparing with experiments reported by Usui et al. Then, the influence of reaction temperature, particle size, and porosity on the hydrogen reduction of FeO was conducted. The results demonstrated that the reaction rate increased with increasing temperature, increasing porosity, and decreasing particle size. The reaction mechanism depended on FeO pellet radius and porosity, it was boundary reaction at smaller radius (80 μm) or smaller porosity (0.210).