Non-Isothermal Reduction Kinetics of Iron Ore Fines with Carbon-Bearing Materials
Abourehab Hammam,
Yi Cao,
Abdel-Hady A. El-Geassy,
Mohamed H. El-Sadek,
Ying Li,
Han Wei,
Mamdouh Omran,
Yaowei Yu
Affiliations
Abourehab Hammam
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferro Metallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Yi Cao
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferro Metallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Abdel-Hady A. El-Geassy
Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), Cairo 11421, Egypt
Mohamed H. El-Sadek
Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), Cairo 11421, Egypt
Ying Li
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferro Metallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Han Wei
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferro Metallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Mamdouh Omran
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferro Metallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Yaowei Yu
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferro Metallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
This study investigates the non-isothermal reduction of iron ore fines with two different carbon-bearing materials using the thermogravimetric technique. The iron ore fines/carbon composites were heated from room temperature up to 1100 °C with different heating rates (5, 10, 15, and 20 °C/min) under an argon atmosphere. The effect of heating rates and carbon sources on the reduction rate was intensively investigated. Reflected light and scanning electron microscopes were used to examine the morphological structure of the reduced composite. The results showed that the heating rates affected the reduction extent and the reduction rate. Under the same heating rate, the rates of reduction were relatively higher by using charcoal than coal. The reduction behavior of iron ore-coal was proceeded step wisely as follows: Fe2O3 → Fe3O4 → FeO → Fe. The reduction of iron ore/charcoal was proceeded from Fe2O3 to FeO and finally from FeO to metallic iron. The reduction kinetics was deduced by applying two different methods (model-free and model-fitting). The calculated activation energies of Fe2O3/charcoal and of Fe2O3/coal are 40.50–190.12 kJ/mol and 55.02–220.12 kJ/mol, respectively. These indicated that the reduction is controlled by gas diffusion at the initial stages and by nucleation reaction at the final stages.
