Biomass Reduction Roasting-Magnetic Separation of Low Grade Goethite

Abstract

The average grade of iron ores in China is around 32%, about 10% lower than the world’s average level. In order to alleviate the demand of iron ore for steelmaking industries, it is urgent to develop a highly efficient, energy-saving, low-carbon and environment-friendly technology. The goethite ore from Northern Hainan Island was studied via reduction magnetization by pine, rice chaff, and corn straw biomass fuels. The magnetic properties and magnetic separation were discussed by optimizing the parameters of roasting temperature, roasting time, and the ratio of biomass fuels. The results show that we could obtain concentrated iron ore grade of pine roasting and magnetic separation grade of iron concentrate 61.64% with the recovery of 79.75% via pine fuel roasting, 61.75% with the recovery 80.16% via rice chaff, and 61.47% with the recovery of 81.28% via corn straw roasting. Thereby, we could deduce that biomass fuels for reduction roasting of low goethite ore is promising to substitute the traditional coal and coke fossil fuels.