Process simulation of iron ore sintering bed with flue gas recirculation

Abstract

Flue gas recirculation (FGR) has been incorporated into the sintering process with the aim of improving productivity while fulfilling tightened environmental regulations. The incorporation of FGR inevitably requires changes in the process equipment as well as incoming and outgoing gas conditions such as temperature, composition and flowrate. These changes may affect not only the reactions in the bed but also the factors related to the design and operation of the plant, which requires the checking of possible effects on gas conditions over the entire bed. The modelling approach proposed in this study for a sintering bed uses a flowsheet process simulator as the starting point for studying the effects of FGR on the sintering process. This paper is the first of two which will present comprehensive information on the modelling approach, and details of the modelling cases and the corresponding results will be described in the companion paper.