Outotec Sintering technologies

40% of the worlds sintering Iron ore sintering has stood at the heart of the ferrous metallurgical processes for over half a century. Outotec has solid experience in agglomeration of fine-grained iron ores. We have built over 400 sintering plants with capacities ranging from 600 to 20,000 tons per day since 1920. Today, 40% of the worlds sinter is produced by our technology. Besides iron ores, it can also be applied for sintering of manganese ore fines. Over the years, we have developed a number of innovative technologies that increase the performance and reduce the capital and operating costs. Longterm research and testing with raw materials of different origins and process parameters, coupled with continuous development and improvements in mechanical design and process automation have made us an unparalleled technology partner.

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Tata Iron and Steel Co., India, has already three Outotec sintering plants in operation.

Outotec Sintering Process

Outotec sintering process begins with the preparation of raw mix from iron ores, fluxes, in-plant dust and spillage fines, solid fuel and return fines. These materials are mixed and granulated in one or more stages. Water is added in order to assist the raw mix in obtaining optimum permeability for lower electricity consumption, maintained by conveying the raw mix carefully onto the sinter machine. Its surface is then ignited, air being induced through the ignited layer and sintering proceeding in the vertical direction in the sinter strands material bed. Subsequently, the sinter is cooled, usually in a separate sinter cooler, located at the sinter machines discharge outlet. The cooled sinter is crushed to a pre-determined maximum particle size. Undersized sinter that is not suitable for the blast furnace is recycled to the return fines bin. A certain quantity, usually 1020 mm, is screened out and recirculated to the sinter machine, where it serves as a hearth layer, protecting the grate bars of the pallets during the sintering process. The product obtained from the process is a blast furnace feed of superior quality. Sintering is the agglomeration of fine-grained iron ores for blast furnace burden preparation. Manganese ores can also be sintered before smelting in the electric arc furnace. Sintering produces a feed of extremely consistent quality in terms of its: n Chemical composition n Grain size distribution n Reducibility n Sinter strength Why sinter?

Environmental safety
Outotec sinter plants are designed to meet the most stringent environmental regulations. For effective dust collection, electrostatic precipitators and/or bag filters dedust the sinter waste gas and air from the plant dedusting system. We provide processes for limiting dioxin, SOx and NOx emissions, while incorporating noise attenuation equipment to meet local regulations.

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Outotec EOS Emission optimized sintering for lower costs Iron ore sintering creates substantial off-gas volumes, and treating these in order to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards is expensive. That is why we have developed the emission optimized sintering process. EOS uses recycling technology

Energy savings and reduced emissions What is more, CO and pollutants like SO x , NO x , dust and dioxins/furans are passed through the sinter layer together with the recirculated gas. While CO is postcombusted, substantially saving on solid fuel, the pollutants are partially retained in the sinter layer and/ or thermically decomposed. In integrated steel plants about 75% of the CO 2 emissions are generated in the blast furnace and about 12% in the sintering process. When following the international CO 2 policy, the Kyoto protocol, and as there is only a minimum technical margin for CO 2 reduction measures in the blast furnace, EOS brings significant benefits for all steel plant operators.

to reduce off-gas volumes by 40 to 50%, resulting in smaller secondary gas treatment systems. This means: n Lower capital investment n Reduced operating costs Conventional sintering uses ambient air to transport heat within the sinter bed, requiring a high air flow rate. However, EOS takes advantage of the fact that only a part of the oxygen in the air is consumed for coke combustion. Therefore a part stream of the off-gas is recycled via the hood, enriched with ambient air to an oxygen content of 1314% and used as intake process air. This reduces off-gas volumes by about 4050% without affecting the sintering process.
Bleed in

Recirculation gas system

Fresh air supply system

Typical flow sheet of a sinter plant with EOS system.

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Proprietary equipment for control, quality, economy and safety

High intensity mixing and nodulizing Mixing and granulation is performed in two separate high intensity mixers, which have the advantage of minor investment costs and space requirements, combined with an excellent mixing and granulation effect, especially for fine grained ores. The required amount of process water will be added to the two mixers in predetermined ratios by means of spray nozzles, in order to adjust the optimum moisture/ permeability of the feed mix. Ignition furnace for optimum maintenance and operation Outotec ignition furnaces consist of standardized segments, each with straight refractory lined vertical side walls and a laterally-arranged special combustion chamber on each side. This design offers the optimum solution in terms of maintenance and operation: n Uniform ignition n Highly flexible operation in response to fluctuations in material bed permeability n Possibility of operation with a high rate of excess air n High safety standards Lurgi traveling grate Our solution for sinter machine is a Lurgi traveling grate consisting of an endless chain of pallets. Its feeding station ensures a continuous supply of hearth layer and feed mix to the sinter machine. Both the feed bins for hearth layer and for feed mix are level controlled. Furthermore, the hearth layer bin is equipped with an adjustable gate, providing a hearth layer of a predetermined height. n n n n n Since our pallets only come into contact with one another on the horizontal section of the upper and lower track, wear is minimized. Durability is also enhanced through the separation of each pallet from the chain by a lifting and lowering sprocket at each station. Longer lasting pallets The roll feeder discharges the material onto a segregation plate. This is an inclined plate across the pallet width. Its inclination and positioning in relation to the material flow from the roll feeder is adjustable for: n Improved feed mix permeability,lowering power consumption n Optimum segregation of fine and coarse particles n Optimum formation of the material layer on the pallets The variable speed roll feeder is mounted on a separate support with rails and wheels to permit roll-in and rollout for maintenance purposes. The feed mix hopper outlet is equipped with motorized gates for adjusting the amount of material to be discharged via a variable speed roll feeder. Ultrasonic sensors control the bed height level of the individually motorized gates.

Each pallet comprises

n A cast pallet body, as a single unit or in three pieces Exchangeable front plates Four roller sets, each set containing one running roller and one pressure roller, both arranged on the same shaft Grate bars made from high alloyed cast steel Side walls of cast material Insulating sections to protect the pallet body

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Discharge station for long service life The sinter strand discharges the sinter onto a crash deck, specially designed and equipped with wearresistant material, from where it slides into a spiked roll crusher whose crushing arms grind it to a maximum size of 200 mm. A movable grizzly carrier is also featured. Direct charging to cooler improves cooling efficiency and reduces emissions The material discharged from the sinter machine enters a chute with a round opening. A concave material layer is built up on the sides of the chute. While passing through the opening, the entire fraction is mixed. This mixed material falls onto a radially adjustable saddle, where the material is re-segregated, the coarse material being deposited on the rear part of the lower chute section while the fine material is deposited in the center. As the cooler moves, the material accumulates on it to form a sloping material layer, whose height is determined by the inner angle of repose of the sinter. Upon the withdrawal of the material, a core flow develops, large lumps from the rear settling on the bottom of the cooler, fine material in the middle and medium sized on top. Efficient sinter cooling While hot sinter is best cooled in a separate cooler, on-strand cooling can be applied in particular appli-cations. Our cooler features all of the essential attributes: n Annular arrangement of troughs n Cooling air pressed through the sinter n A bed height of 1.4 to 1.6 m, minimizing the cooling air volume n Horizontal movement of the cooler trough, with the trough bottoms following a dip rail at the discharge station The cooler trough wheels run on a circular rail supported by a concrete sub-base, which also serves as a wind channel for cooling air. While the cooler is driven by friction drive units via a segmented friction

ring, cooling air fans are arranged outside the cooler. Spillage collecting plates underneath each cooler trough bottom plate retain all sinter spillage and discharge it to the collecting hopper. Special seal bars, individually supported on flat spring plates, minimize cooling air leakages. Height-adjustable wheels provide equalized, uniform wheel loads, while temperature optimized side wall clamping allows for thermo-expansions without stressing the cooler. Natural segregation with the maintenance-free cascade classifier Outotec's new cascade classifier, separating coarse from fine size iron ore sinter stream material, replaces the scalping screen in front of double roll crushers. It functions based on: n Natural segregation by dropping or pouring material n Adjustable start-up saddles phase), (adjusted once the during of guaranteeing removal

inadmissible coarse material from the separated fines The cascade classifier is almost maintenance-free, since it runs on stone box type saddles which do not touch the side walls. Coarse particles separated at the saddle front side are fed into the cold sinter double roll crusher, while fine material separated at the saddle far side by-passes the crusher and is mixed again with the crushed material underneath.

Energy savings together with reduced emissions:

n Optimum permeability of the sinter layer on the cooler n n Optimal use of the cooling air Minimum spillage since sinter fines are held off the trough bottom n Minimum dust emission since sinter fines are covered by the middle size sinter fraction, acting as a filtration layer

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Sinter plant in Middlesbrough, U.K.

State-of-the-art control systems

Outotec sinter plant control systems include: n Return fines balance control n Material mixture computing and control with individual moisture control n Burn through-point control/sinter capacity control n Ignition furnace control with permeability measurement Such an architecture supports the addition of an operational layer above DCS/OCS for process management (level 3) including monitoring, analyzing, optimizing, simulating and pre-tuning level 2 controllers (process management) based on a dynamic computer sinter model. Flexibility brings extra benefits Our sinter plants are designed to cater for fluctuating production requirements. To enable high production rates, some plants are designed for a specific output of up to 45 t/24 h/m. For lower rates, plants can be operated with maximum energy savings and superior sinter quality. These enable extensive supervisory control functions using standard distributed or open control systems (DCS/OCS).

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Facts about Outotec sinter plants

Traveling grate dimensions n 36600 m reaction area n 25 m machine width Capacity n 0.156.5 million tpy in single units n Availability 330345 days/year n Specific production rates up to 45 t/24 h/m Consumption figures (per ton of product sinter) n Solid and gaseous fuel: 12501400 MJ n Electrical energy: 2832 KWh n Process water: 0.030.05 m n 1620 men per day Process parameters n Basicity CaO/SiO 2 : 1.22.9 n Bed height: 500730 mm n Suction: 130190 mbar n Return fines rate: 1825% Product qualities n ISO-strength (+ 6.3 mm) 7580% n RDI (-3 mm) 2832% n FeO 58% Sinter plant modernization a made-to-fit process Our solutions are not only valid for new plants but also revamps, retrofits and capacity increases. To improve the efficiency of existing plants we provide a number of alternatives, ranging from individual equipment replacement to extensive plant rehabilitations, tailored to each customers specific needs.
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R&D facilities providing economy and innovative technology Outotecs long research pedigree, based on our own facilities in Frankfurt, Germany, forms the basis for the successful design and construction of sinter plants. While test series yield specific data for the optimum technical and economical design of commercial plants, pot tests determine the key ore mix parameters (specific sinter output as a function of the applied suction and required sinter quality) for use together with the flux and solid fuel. These parameters form the basis of sinter plant design. Our full range of R&D facilities test sinter properties to meet international standards such as ISO, ASTM, JIS and DIN.

Operational manpower (4-shift basis):

Plant modernization can include:

n n n Replacement of obsolete equipment Upgrading of sinter plants Construction of plant units and new sinter plants with maximum leverage of the existing infrastructure

Outotec develops and provides technology solutions for the sustainable use of Earths natural resources. As the global leader in minerals and metals processing technology, Outotec has developed over decades several breakthrough technologies. The company also offers innovative solutions for the chemical industry, industrial water treatment and the utilization of alternative energy sources. Outotec shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.

ferrous@outotec.com www.outotec.com Copyright 2011 Outotec Oyj. All rights reserved.

Finland, December 2011.