Pellet Plant Research Articles

Physics-inspired AI-based model for cold crushing strength of an iron ore pellet plant

ABSTRACT The cold crushing strength (CCS) of iron ore pellets produced in a straight grate indurating machine is critical to their quality and performance. This study explored two modelling approaches to accurately predict CCS: an artificial neural network (ANN) model and a physics-informed hybrid model. The ANN model was designed to predict CCS directly from parameters such as pellet chemistry, Blaine number, and measured induration conditions. In contrast, the hybrid model combined a first-principles simulation of the induration process with the ANN model, using the simulated pellet temperatures and the exit gas temperatures as inputs to the ANN component, while keeping the other input parameters the same as the standalone ANN model. The models were validated using 1730 datasets from a 6 MTPA iron ore pelletizing plant of Tata Steel India Ltd. The hybrid model demonstrated superior performance, achieving a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 3.7% compared to 4.1% for the ANN-only model. The hybrid model offers two key advantages: (1) it can provide early insights into CCS, enabling pre-emptive adjustments to the induration process, and (2) it can be used as a powerful optimization tool to enhance the overall quality and consistency of the iron ore pellets.

Eco-Efficiency of Pellet Production from Dedicated Poplar Plantations

Biomass, due to its neutrality in terms of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere during its life cycle, is considered an interesting renewable source for energy production as an alternative to the use of more polluting fossil fuels. Among the different wood fuels, pellets are convenient for use in dedicated stoves, and pellet heating systems have a high energy efficiency. The aim of this work was to estimate the economic and global warming potential (GWP100a) generated along the thermal energy supply chain of wood pellets, starting from the production of raw biomass from dedicated poplar cultivations and ending with the use of pellets in stoves by the end-user to produce thermal energy and ash. The Eco-Efficiency Indicator (EEI) was used to link the economic and environmental performance for eight proposed scenarios, obtained by combining different levels of mechanisation for poplar harvesting and wood biomass management before arrival at the pellet plant. For the thermal energy produced by the poplar wood pellet, the GWP100a ranged from 1.5 × 10−2 to 2.1 × 10−2 kg CO2−eq MJ−1 for three-year-old plantations and from 1.9 × 10−2 to 2.4 × 10−2 kg CO2−eq MJ−1, for six-year-old plantations. In terms of eco-efficiency of the baseline scenario (EEIb), the most favourable scenarios remain those linked to the use of biomass from three-year-old poplar plantations, with EEIb values ranging from 0.31 to 0.60 € kgCO2−eq−1, compared to from 0.29 to 0.36 € kgCO2−eq−1 for pellets obtained from biomass produced from six-year-old poplar plantations. In terms of the Global Eco-Efficiency Indicator (EEIg), which also takes into account the positive effect on the reduction of greenhouse gases due to the storage of carbon in the soil by the plantations and the reduction of emissions from avoided fossil fuels, the most favourable scenarios remain those linked to the use of biomass from three-year-old poplar plantations, with EEIg values that vary in the range of 0.60 ÷ 1.04 € kgCO2−eq−1, compared to 0.55 ÷ 0.62 € kg CO2−eq−1 for thermal energy obtained using biomass from six-year-old poplar plantations.

Experimental and numerical investigation of iron ore pellet firing using coupled CFD-DEM method

Iron ore pellets are the main feedstock in ironmaking processes. While extensive research has addressed numerical modeling of the iron ore pellet induration process, little effort has been made to describe the intricate thermochemical processes occurring within the reactor starting from the pellet and particularly at the intra-particle scale. In this regard, discrete-continuous methods like CFD-DEM can generate more realistic, irregular particle assemblies, which leads to significantly more accurate predictions of voidage variation, wall effects, temperature distribution, and associated mass transfer phenomena. This study presents a numerical model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with the discrete element method (DEM) to simulate the thermal induration process of iron ore pellets. The presented model solving heat, mass, and momentum conservation equations for both continuous and discrete phases, provides detailed information on the thermochemical aspects of the process. Pilot-scale induration experiment was conducted to validate model predictions in terms of thermal history and final conversion fraction. It was found that inlet charge specifications, such as particle and pellet size, significantly impact the productivity of pelletizing plants, highlighting the potential of the presented model to optimize the process and improve plant productivity.

Energy Gain and Carbon Footprint in the Production of Bioelectricity and Wood Pellets in Croatia

The paper presents the process of electricity and thermal energy production in a cogeneration plant and the process of wood pellet production. The aim of this study was to analyze the energy gain—EROI for energy products that are created as a product contained in electrical and thermal energy and the energy contained in wood pellets. According to the obtained results, the production of only electrical energy from wood biomass in a cogeneration plant was not sustainable from an energy point of view, since the obtained electrical energy was only 1.46 times greater than the input wood energy (EROIel = 1.46), while the obtained energy of the produced wood pellets was 4.82 (EROIpel = 4.82). According to the results of equivalent carbon emission, positive net value was achieved only with cogeneration plant and pellet plant working in synergy. Wood is a renewable source of energy, and its economic use can create a significant energy gain. However, due to the trend of using renewable energy sources and the increasing need for electricity, such a process of obtaining electricity is financially profitable, although it is not justified from the energy profitability and environmental sustainability point of view.

Online Monitoring of Iron Ore Pellet Size Distribution Using Lightweight Convolutional Neural Network

An improved U-Net based convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed in this paper for online size monitoring of iron ore pellets. The proposed CNN model is a lightweight version of U-Net. In the proposed model each convolution block of the encoder subnet consists of a concatenated <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\times 1$</tex-math> </inline-formula> and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3\times 3$</tex-math> </inline-formula> filter kernel, a batch normalization layer, and a ReLU nonlinearity. The proposed CNN model efficiently detects the pellets even under variable illumination conditions and images with overlapping pellets. The proposed model is evaluated using images of iron ore pellets acquired at the discharge end of a pelletizer disc. The proposed CNN model performs satisfactorily using <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 39% less learnable parameters, and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 16% reduced computational cost than the original U-Net model. The proposed model outperforms the conventional U-Net, different variants of U-Nets, FCN, and SegNet in weighted IoU, BF Score, global accuracy, SSIM, and PSNR. Experimental validation also shows a good agreement between the obtained pellet size distribution and the manual sieving result. This makes the proposed algorithm suitable for online pellet size-distribution measuring instruments. This method provides a more accurate and fast size monitoring system for iron ore pellets, ideal for real-time industrial applications. The image dataset and source codes are available at the below given link. https://github.com/aryadeo/Pellet_Size_Distribution. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners</i> —Due to the advent of digitalization in industries, several attempts are being made to use innovative industrial monitoring systems in steel manufacturing plants. Most of the pellet plants in steel industries use human supervision for pellet growth monitoring. In this paper, a camera-based pellet size distribution monitoring method is proposed. A novel deep learning-based algorithm is used for the detection of pellets from the captured image followed by computation of pellet size analysis. Due to low computational complexity and better accuracy, the proposed method is suitable for online pellet size distribution system development compared to other previously proposed methods. However, protection from the harsh industrial environment is required for the uninterrupted and continuous operation of the system. As a future scope, the obtained pellet size information can be used as one of the control variables in designing a control system for the automated operation of the pelletizer disc.

Optimizing biomass supply for cofiring at power plants to minimize environmental impact: A case of oil palm empty fruit bunches in West Java

This study addresses the supply flow optimization to reduce global warming in a cofiring system, using the example of oil palm empty fruit bunches converted into pellets for use in power plants in Indonesia. Four oil palm mills, seven pellet plants and five coal power plants in the West Java Region were considered in this study to select the optimal supply chain. The study was performed using a life cycle assessment (LCA) for evaluating impact of single firing of coal and linear programming (LP) for optimizing the impact reduction of cofiring of coal and pellets. Our study indicates that the optimal environmental reduction can be achieved by constructing six of the seven pellet plants, which can substitute up to 1 % of the coal supply in five power plants. Accordingly, the emissions could be decreased by an average of 0.018 kg CO2eq/kWh for the power plants, which is equal to 0.2 Mt CO2eq/y or a 1.57 % reduction per year. By varying the emission factor of the pellet plants, our analysis showed a tolerable range in which the supply would not be affected. The sensitivity analysis at a 1 % cofiring rate showed that the increase in biomass supply from the oil palm mills had the highest reduction, whereas the reduction in transportation emissions provided much less impact. By adjusting the cofiring rate, the impact would not change after the 3 % cofiring rate because of the limited availability of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) feedstock. However, if sufficient supply could be provided, the environmental impact would be further reduced significantly. Furthermore, the scenario expansion indicated that only three pellet plants would be required for the minimum economic scale of production, although the environmental impact increased by 0.47 % compared to using six pellet plants. Therefore, this study can be used to determine the optimal supply chain scenarios by constructing an appropriate number of economically feasible pellet plants according to the biomass demand and cofiring rate of the power plant.

A Study on the Influence of Drying and Preheating Parameters on the Roasting Properties of Limonite Pellets

In this experiment, a pellet preparation method was investigated to study the drying, preheating, and roasting properties of limonitic iron ore from a plant in Yunnan. The aim was to improve the subsequent iron-making process of limonitic iron ore and make it a substitute for sintered ore. This substitution would reduce the amount of blast furnace slag in the iron-making process. Bentonite is commonly used as a primary binder in many pelletizing plant operations. However, its excessive usage leads to a higher risk of slagging and coking in the furnace. In this paper, we aim to decrease the quantity of bentonite added, enhance the iron content in the pellets, and reduce impurities to improve the grade of limonite pellets. The results show that the optimal drying, preheating, and roasting temperatures of limonite pellets are 200 °C, 700 °C, and 1250 °C, respectively, and the optimal roasting time is 20 min, when the diameter of the pellets is 8–13 mm. The compressive strength of limonite pellets with the addition of 1.5% bentonite was the highest, meeting the demands of a general blast furnace, based on which the iron grade of limonite pellet ore was increased by 10.63%.

Occupational Dust Exposure as a Risk Factor for Developing Lung Function Impairment.

Dust exposure is high in several industries. We investigated associations of exposure in paper mills, wood pellet plants, and iron foundries with lung function impairment. Respirable silica, inhalable paper dust, or inhalable wood dust were collected as personal samples and spirometry was performed. Multiple linear regression analyzed associations with FEV 1 %pred and FVC%pred. Wood pellet workers with high exposure to inhalable dust had lower FEV 1 %pred (95% CI) (-9.4 [-16 to -2.6]) and FVC%pred (-9.8 [-15 to -4.0]) compared with lowest exposure level. Workers at paper mills and foundries had no dose-dependent association but lower FEV 1 %pred and FVC%pred than in workers at wood pellets plants. Increased exposure to inhalable wood dust is associated with decreased lung function. Foundry and paper mill workers have generally lower lung function than wood pellet workers. Spirometry should be considered in workers in industries with airborne particulate matter pollution.

Variability in Physical Properties of Logging and Sawmill Residues for Making Wood Pellets

Wood pellets are a versatile ingredient to produce bioenergy and bioproducts. Wood pellet manufacturing in Canada started as a way of using the excess sawdust from sawmilling operations. With the recent dwindling availability of sawdust and the growth in demand for wood pellets, the industry uses more non-sawdust woody biomass as feedstock. In this study, woody biomass materials received from nine wood pellet plants in British Columbia (BC) and Alberta were analyzed for their properties, especially those used for fractionating feedstock to make pellets. Half of the feedstock received at the plants was non-sawdust. Moisture contents varied from 10 to 60% wet basis, with the hog having an average of 50%. Ash contents ranged from 0.3 to 4% dry basis and were highest in the hog fraction. Bulk density varied from 50 to 450 kg/m3, with shavings having the lowest bulk density. Particle density ranged from 359 kg/m3 for infeed mix to 513 kg/m3 for sawdust. In total, 25% of particles received were larger than 25 mm. The extraneous materials (sand, dirt) in the infeed materials ranged from 0.03% to 1.2%, except for one hog sample (8.2%). Plant operators use mechanical fractionation and blending to meet the required ash content. In conclusion, further instrumental techniques to aid in fractionation should be developed.

Удосконалення процесу фільтрування залізорудного магнетитового концентрату ПРАТ «ЦГЗК» для забезпечення фабрики огрудкування сировиною для DRI обкотишів

Удосконалення процесу фільтрування залізорудного магнетитового концентрату ПРАТ «ЦГЗК» для забезпечення фабрики огрудкування сировиною для DRI обкотишів

The impact of new technologies on the iron ore screening flowsheet

The iron ore screening process plays a pivotal role in determining the dimensions of pellets that enter the firing process of a pelletizing plant. The particle size distribution resulting from this process significantly influences the gas flow permeability within the induration furnace. This paper investigates the latest developments in screening technology, highlighting advancements that contribute to elevated levels of screening efficiency and enhanced plant productivity. The discussion turns around how these technological innovations pave the way for achieving the objective of producing high-quality iron ore pellets with minimal energy consumption, thereby improving the overall performance of the plant. The paper offers a comprehensive overview of the screening process flowsheet, encompassing these cutting-edge technologies, associated process parameters, and benefits quantified through DEM simulations. Moreover, it examines the consequential impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, providing a holistic perspective on the environmental implications of these advancements.

Technoeconomic Analysis of Torrefaction and Steam Explosion Pretreatment Prior to Pelletization of Selected Biomass

Lignocellulosic biomass has demonstrated great potential as feedstock for pellet production, notwithstanding the fact that the industrial production of pellets is faced with some economic challenges. This study presents a technoeconomic analysis of six scenarios to develop a process model for pellet production from sawdust and oat straw that employs torrefaction and steam explosion pretreatment prior to pelletization. SuperPro Designer was used to carry out this evaluation. The pellet plants were designed to have a capacity of 9.09 t/h of sawdust and oat straw each. The pellet yield ranged from 59 kt to 72 kt/year. The scenarios analyzed included variations of steam explosion and torrefaction. In some scenarios, materials were lost in the form of liquid and gas due to the pretreatment process. The breakdown of equipment purchase cost showed that the torrefaction reactor is the most expensive unit with approximately 51% of the purchase cost. Facility-dependent and feedstock costs were the major significant contributors to the pellet production cost. The minimum selling prices of the pellets obtained from Scenarios 1–6 were $113.4/t, $118.7/t, $283.4/t, $298.7/t, $200.5/t, and $208.4/t, respectively. The profitability of pellet production as determined by the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and payback period was found to be sensitive to variations in feedstock cost.

Investigate the potential of using fuzzy similarity in decision making under uncertainty for mining projects

Multi criteria decision-making methods are used in mining engineering, in which various aspects are involved, such as selecting mining methods, mineral processing sites, etc. Decisions in this field can be made using a variety of techniques. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is one of the most widely used decision-making methods based on multi criteria to make a decision. As part of this research, an attempt was made to investigate how fuzzy measurements can be applied to mining projects to improve the TOPSIS methods' efficiency. A full investigation of the mining method selection process, the waste dump site selection process at Gol-e-Ghar mine Area 3, the location of Bahabad Pelletizing plant, the appropriate site selection for crusher machine Sarcheshmeh copper mine, and loading-haulage equipment selection for Sungun copper mine has been carried out in order to achieve this goal. Accordingly, an area north of the pit was selected as the best location for the waste dump, open-pit mining was selected as the best mining method for the Gol-e-Gohar mine, Cite Number 2 was selected as the best location for the Bahabad Pelletizing Plant, the East side of the Sarcheshmeh copper mine is presented as the most suitable one, and shovel-truck-belt conveyor selected as the transportation method for Sungun copper mine. For mining projects, fuzzy similarity logic in the TOPSIS method provides both accurate and efficient results, as well as reducing the number of calculations. It also provides accurate results based on linguistic, numeric, and fuzzy values and determines whether all alternatives are feasible. Finally, it is shown that the TOPSIS based on fuzzy similarity for considering uncertainty in mining projects that are involved the decision-making process can be practical and useful.

Assessment of the effect of iron magnetic concentrate desulfurization by flotation method on the quality of green and cooked pellets: A laboratory and pilot-scale study

The effect of flotation for desulfurizing the iron pelletizing feed has been investigated. The flotation method can reduce the emission of harmful environmental gases during the pelletization process by reducing the concentrate's sulfur content. On the other hand, flotation causes a change in the Blaine of the iron concentrate and wastes some magnetite particles. In this research, the samples were collected from the iron concentrate grinding circuit product in the Golgohar pelletizing plant. They were subjected to flotation tests on a laboratory and industrial scale. In addition, the properties of pellets produced before and after desulfurization by flotation were investigated. The results showed that using flotation, iron and sulfur grades changed from 66.08% and 1.12%, to 68.3% and 0.33%, respectively. Although flotation reduces the Blaine number of the pelletizing feed from 1800 to 1512 cm2/g, this reduction is mainly due to the removal of fine clay particles and did not harm pellet oxidation. Decreasing the sulfur content of the iron concentrate feeding to the pelletizing process led to an increase in the quality of raw and cooked pellets in terms of increasing the cooking speed (5%), increasing the compressive strength (13%), and reducing the residual FeO (2%), together with less emission of SO2 to the environment.

Wood Pellet Production in the U.S. South and Exportation for ‘Renewable’ Energy in Europe

In recent years, European demand for wood pellets has surged due to a misconception of carbon neutrality. The current legal frameworks posit that simply replacing a harvested tree renders the burning of wood pellets for energy use renewable energy. This oversimplification does not consider a number of factors, including the difference in carbon sequestration capabilities between original, natural forests and replacement monoculture plantations, the cumulative impact of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, and the years required for a replacement tree to sequester as much carbon as the harvested tree. The EU and U.K. can currently utilize emissions “reductions” due to burning wood pellets to reach domestic renewable energy goals along with commitments under the Paris Agreement. The corresponding increase in demand for wood pellets in Europe has resulted in a hotspot of wood pellet production in the U.S. South with several significant consequences. This Note presents the environmental justice and climate change impacts of the growing wood pellet industry in historically marginalized communities in the U.S. South, with a close look at the Enviva wood pellet plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. It provides an overview of the inadequacies of U.S., EU, U.K., and international environmental law in protecting both the global climate and local communities from the impacts of wood pellet production and combustion. This Note then builds on calls to change IPCC and EU carbon accounting rules for wood harvested for energy use to propose a solution to the environmental justice side of the wood pellet dilemma in international environmental law: namely, adding environmental justice safeguards to the UNFCCC Paris Agreement.

The wood pellet industry in the United States South: an exploratory regional comparison of resident environmental, social, and economic perceptions

This article is a companion to another article published in the same issue of the Journal of Forest Business Research.[1] As such, to preclude duplication, much of the background and literature review are not repeated in this article. While that article focuses on comparing rural and urban resident perceptions of the wood pellet industry, in this piece, we examine and compare residents by major pellet production sub-region in the US South across three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic attributes. The Southern region overall is the world's largest producer and exporter of wood pellets. The sub-regions are the Gulf Coast (Louisiana and Mississippi) and the Atlantic Coast (South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia). Two rounds of a web-based survey were sent to 7,500 residents in the two pellet-producing sub-regions within the US South. Within these regions, surveys were sent to randomly selected residents by zip code, 18 years or older. Overall, Gulf Coast respondents were more accepting of the pellet industry than Atlantic Coast respondents across the three attributes. [1] LeBlanc MT, Vlosky RP. 2023. What do people think about the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the wood pellet industry? An exploratory study of residents living near pellet plants vs. urban residents in States with pellet manufacturers. J.For.Bus.Res. 2(1): 20-37.

Technoeconomic Feasibility of Bioenergy Production from Wood Sawdust

In this study, the technoeconomic feasibility of bioenergy production from sawdust under four different case scenarios is simulated and compared. These scenarios include: (1) heat and electricity generation from raw sawdust; (2) pellet production from sawdust; (3) and (4) integrated biorefinery approach for the simultaneous manufacturing of multiple products (steam-exploded and torrefied pellets) and co-products (furfural, hydroxy methyl furfural (HMF), acetic acid), along with heat and electricity generation. Economic assessments such as cost analysis, payback time (PBT), net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) were determined for these scenarios. The results showed that the approach of producing torrefied pellets, furfural, and acetic acid, along with co-generated heat and electricity, in terms of multiproducts and profitability (NPV (at 7%): USD 38.29 M) was preferable over other alternatives. In terms of simplified technology and other economic indices (PBT: 2.49 year, IRR: 51.33%, and return on investment (ROI): 40.1%), the scenario for producing pellets from wood sawdust was more promising than others. If plant capacity was not a limiting factor, the optimal size for the combined heat and power (CHP) plant was between 250–300 kt for the main product. Additionally, untreated and treated pellet plants equipped with CHP had an optimal size of 150–200 kt of wood pellets per year.

What do people think about the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the wood pellet industry? An exploratory study of residents living near pellet plants vs. urban residents in states with pellet manufacturers

This research provides insight into the wood pellet manufacturing industry from residents’ perspectives in the US South, focusing on environmental, social, and economic constructs. The region is the world’s largest producer and exporter of wood pellets. We sought to investigate in-depth socio-economic dynamics and fill a gap in knowledge of the human dimension relationships between the wood pellet industry and public supply-side issues in the US South. Two rounds of a web-based survey were sent to 7,500 residents in the two pellet-producing sub-regions within the US South: the Gulf Coast (Louisiana and Mississippi) and the Atlantic Coast (South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia). Within these regions, surveys were sent to randomly selected residents, by zip code, 18 years or older, who live within a 50-mile radius of selected pellet mills (rural) or in the two largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) (urban) within each state containing a pellet mill. Compared to urban respondents, rural/proximal respondents within the 50-mile radius of pellet manufacturers were more aware of the existence of the wood pellet industry and had an overall more positive of the sector. Overall, urban-area respondents have a greater affinity for the environment and were generally more concerned with humans producing negative impacts on the environment. However, specific to the pellet sector, rural/proximal respondents think that the wood pellet sector is more effective in protecting the environment. Regarding social behaviors and perceptions, relative to urban respondents, rural/proximal respondents felt that the pellet industry is a superior sector in supporting communities, is concerned about the needs of communities, creates quality jobs, and is a good industry to work for. Results for the last construct, economic perceptions, show that urban respondents strongly believe that their community has a strong economy relative to rural/proximal respondents. This suggests that new sectors, such as the pellet industry can provide much needed economic development in rural geographic areas.

Sentiments toward use of forest biomass for heat and power in canadian headlines

Replacement of fossil fuels with bioenergy, often in concert with carbon capture and storage, plays an important role in published low-emission pathways from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other agencies. National and regional net-zero greenhouse gas emission commitments have caused a dramatic increase in forest biomass consumption globally, and the rise has been accompanied by debates in the scholarly literature and in society at large about the ecological and climate change impacts of forest biomass. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of media headlines about forest bioenergy published in 75 Canadian newspapers from 2010 to 2020. Using a lexicon and rules-based sentiment analysis tool, we explore negative and positive media headlines about forest biomass. Despite our finding that Canadian headlines about forest bioenergy were twice as likely to be positive as negative, media items document reversals away from forest biomass-generated domestic electricity. Our analysis found that increases in electricity costs following the introduction of forest biomass as a fuel type for Canadian electricity generation was a primary cause of these reversals. Headlines also critiqued the expanded production of wood pellets, citing forest ecological impacts and the debate about the net carbon impacts of forest biomass-generated energy. Safety issues, including stories about workplace injuries, and pellet plant fires, and economic issues, such as fiber supply and mill closures, were also featured. This research contributes a social science lens to understand perceptions over time about forest biomass for heat and power.

Importance and Effectiveness of Different Safety Training Methods and their Application in Iron Ore Pelletizing Plants

Iron ore pelletizing plants present several types of hazards and risks that can contribute to occupational incidents and material losses. Hazard Identification and Risk assessment is a process to identify causes and consequences including significance level considering both probability and consequences of occurrences. Henceforth, preventive and mitigation measures are established, communicated, and verified to prevent unwanted incidents and events. In 1950 the National Safety Council introduced the hierarchy of controls inspired by a philosophy that controlling exposures to occupational hazards is the fundamental method of protecting workers. The hierarchy of control was established to prove that design, elimination, substitution, and engineering controls should be the most effective when applied in preventing occupational incidents followed by administrative controls and Personal Protective Equipment. Safety training is one of the important preventive measures falling under the category of administrative controls. However, training effectiveness shall be considered in all phases such as training design, delivery, and post-training monitoring. In this paper, the main iron ore pelletizing safety hazards and risks such as the conveyor belt system will be reviewed and a discussion on the effectiveness, barriers, and constraints of traditional safety training programs and the consideration of advantages and challenges of the immersive training program in ensuring the effectiveness in improving risk perception, safe behavior and reducing occupational safety incidents.