Departamento de Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica, Escuela de Ingeniería de Minas, Energía y Materiales, Universidad de Oviedo, 33004 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Janusz Prazuch
Department of Physical Chemistry and Modelling, Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Íñigo Ruiz-Bustinza
Departamento de Ingeniería Geológica y Minera, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas y Energía, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28003 Madrid, Spain
Carmen González-Gasca
Escuela de Doctorado e Investigación, Universidad Europea de Madrid, 28670 Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, Spain
Juan Piñuela-Noval
Departamento de Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica, Escuela de Ingeniería de Minas, Energía y Materiales, Universidad de Oviedo, 33004 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Luis Felipe Verdeja González
Departamento de Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica, Escuela de Ingeniería de Minas, Energía y Materiales, Universidad de Oviedo, 33004 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Environmental protection is deeply rooted in current societies. In this context, searching for new environmentally friendly energy sources is one of the objectives of industrial policies in general, and of the metallurgical industries in particular. One of these energy sources is solar energy, which offers a great potential in high temperature applications, such as those required in metallurgy processes, when properly concentrated. In this paper, we propose the utilization of concentrated solar energy in ironmaking. We have studied the utilization of concentrated solar thermal in the agglomeration of iron ore mixtures and in the obtaining of iron via reduction with carbon (and coke breeze). The results from the experiments show the typical phases of the iron ore sinters and the presence of iron through smelting reduction.
