Abstract
The use of low-grade iron ores has attracted a lot of interest where fines from these ores are sintered to improve their strength. Ti-containing ores are one of the abundantly available iron ores of low-grade. The sintering of the hematite–ilmenite ore blends has several challenges, which include the formation of perovskite. The sintering behavior of a hematite–ilmenite ore sinter blend was investigated in 75 vol% N2, 24 vol% CO2, and 1 vol% CO in the temperature range of 1373 to 1523 K. Phase development and distribution of metallic elements were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). The addition of ilmenite ore to hematite ore increased the temperature of melt formation. More titanium (Ti) was distributed in the glass phase with increasing temperature. Morphological change showed that the amount of sinter-bonding phase generated was low, below 1473 K. Weak sinter bonding strength might be caused by the presence of Ti in the glass phase at high temperature. This might affect the fracture toughness of the glass phase.
Highlights
The growth in the steel industry has increased the demand of high-grade iron ores, which have been depleted, and requires investigation of how to utilize low-grade ores such as titanium-containing ores
The results clearly showed that the pellets sintered at 1473 K and below generated a lower amount of bonding materials, which might mean that low temperature sintering might result in poor sinter strength due to the availability of the low amount of bonding material
Increase in the sintering temperature to 1523 K generated more bonding phase, but most of the Ti was reported to be in the glass phase at high temperature, which might affect the sinter strength due the negative effects of Ti on the glass fracture toughness [3]
Summary
The growth in the steel industry has increased the demand of high-grade iron ores, which have been depleted, and requires investigation of how to utilize low-grade ores such as titanium-containing ores. In the sintering of iron ore, titanium can be introduced into the sinter mix when adding ilmenite, FeO·TiO2 (s), or titanomagnetite, Fe3–x Tix O4 (s). Ti-containing ores, as a cheap source of iron, can introduce small amounts of TiO2 (s) into the furnace that could lead to the protection of the hearth lining by forming complex carbo-nitrides. Small amounts of Ti can enter into the molten iron, leading to Ti-containing steels with improved mechanical properties [1]. Some researchers [2] have used NaOH to decompose the high Ti slags, where titanium is converted to sodium titanate, titanium dioxide is obtained after acidolysis, heating hydrolysis, and calcination
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