Effects of Temperature and Atmosphere on Pellets Reduction Swelling Index

Abstract

After taking into account the conditions of the domestic iron resources and the non-coking coal resources, the process of coal gasification-shaft furnace is an effective way to develop direct reduction iron in China. The following tasks are very critical to choose suitable process of shaft furnace and gasification, including the production of oxidized pellets with excellent comprehensive properties as well as the study of the reaction behavior and mechanism of swelling. The results showed that the oxidized pellets of using domestic magnetic iron concentrate as raw materials have favorable comprehensive properties, including higher mechanical strength both before and after reduction, faster reduction rate and lower reduction swelling index (RSI). All of these properties can meet the shaft furnace yielding requirement. When the temperature was below 1223 K, the pellets′ RSI was lower than 20%. With increasing of the content of H2 in atmosphere, the pellets reaction rate accelerated, crushing strength enhanced and RSI decreased. The RSI dropped to 10.26% at 1323 K in 100% H2 atmosphere, and it is up to 39.88% in 100% CO atmosphere. The iron grains mainly presented in platelike when pellets were reduced by H2, however, in CO atmosphere the iron grains were precipitated in flocculent. The whisker shape of iron grains and heating effects of reduction reaction are the major factors leading to the poor pellets strength and increase of RSI. Appropriately controlling the temperature and increasing the ratio of H2 to CO in atmosphere are good for dropping the RSI.