Abstract
The present study aims to investigate the use of mixed hematite and magnetite ores in iron ore pellet production. Pelletizing tests were carried out on the hematite and magnetite premixed pellet feed. Drop number and compressive strength tests for green and dry pellets; porosity, compressive strength and reducibility tests for fired pellets were carried out to determine the influence of mixing ratios of both iron oxides on those pellet properties. Experimental results showed that as the hematite content in the mix pellets is increased, the green drop number decreased from 6.5 to 5.2, the green compressive strength decreased from 1.51 to 1.28 kg/pellet and the dry compressive strength decreased from 2.50 to 1.60 kg/pellet. It was determined that fired compressive strength of mix pellets decreased from 380 to 230 kg/pellet when the hematite content in the mixed pellet is increased. The reducibility of mix pellets had almost the same trend and it was faster up to 40 min reduction time. The results showed that the use of hematite together with magnetite is possible to produce pellets with sufficiently good quality in terms of wet, dry and fired mechanical strengths. The porosity and reducibility values of mix pellets were also found to be adequate to use as feed for the blast furnace.
Highlights
The main natural raw material for iron and steel industry is iron ores
Magnetite ore concentrates obtained from magnetite sources through enrichment processes are more suitable for iron ore pellet making
The strength of green pellets mainly depends on the capillary negative pressure of the liquid saturated pores and surfaces, which lays between iron ore particles [3, 26]
Summary
The main natural raw material for iron and steel industry is iron ores. Iron ores can be classified as high grade and low grade in terms of their iron contents. High-grade iron ores which can be used directly in the blast furnace to produce metallic iron are not abundant in the earth’s crust to supply the need of iron and steel industry [1]. The utilization of finely distributed iron oxides in low-grade hematite and magnetite ores through agglomeration has gained much importance in the present situation due to depletion of highgrade iron ores. Among all agglomeration techniques, pelletizing utilizes very finely ground ores or concentrates with sufficient iron content greater than 63 % [2]. Both magnetite and hematite ore concentrates can be used in agglomeration processes.
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