Iron Making MM 321

4 credits
Source: IITM; Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Dept.
Objectives of the course
What are the raw materials for iron making

Burden preparation

Distribution of burden

Physical-thermalchemical process in a blast furnace

Layout of blast furnace

Blast furnace products

Alternate routes of iron making



History of iron making
Use of iron by Egyptians dates back to 6000 BC

Use of iron in Indian: 3000 years ago; WOOTZ steel: the oldest steel









Primitive iron making

Furnace: stone and clay
charged with ore and charcoal
Air was blown through the charge continuously until the operation was over.
What is an ore?
What is a mineral?
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements
including metals and from which metal can be extracted economically
A mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline and
that has been formed as a result of geological processes
Modern iron making

Iron was produced by reduction smelting of iron ores with coke

Smelting: It is a heating process for the production of metal or matte. It involves reduction of
the oxide of the metal with carbon/sulphur/sulphide in a suitable furnace

Mineral+ gangue + reducing agent + flux = metal+slag+gas

Furnace: Blast furnace
Elevation view of a blast furnace
Raw materials used in blast furnace

1. lump iron ore
2. Sinter/pellets
3. Coke
4. Fluxes (limestone/dolomite)



Iron ore deposits in India

1. India stands third in the world iron
ore reserves after Brazil and
Australia
2. Bihar and Orissa have 43% of total
iron ores reserves in India
(Singhbum, Keonjhar, Bolani,
Mayurbhanj and Cuttack districts)
3. Madhya pradesh-Bailadila
4. Karnataka-Mysore,
5. Goa
6. Andhrapradesh-Anantapur,
kurnool, Nizamabad



1. Hematite- Fe
2
O
3

2. Magnetite-Fe
3
O
4
3. Limonite-FeO(OH)nH
2
O
4. Carbonate-FeCO
3
ORES of Iron
2300 million tonnes of iron ore reserves in India
85% is Hematite
8% is Magnetite
7% rest

Iron content of Hematite ores is >55%
Iron content of Magnetite ores is >30%

Reducing agent used: coke

Coke is obtained by destructive distillation of coal
coal reserves

Jharkhand, westbengal, bihar, orissa, MP, UP

Coking coal reserves (low ash content, volatile matter)

Jharia-Jharkhand
Bokaro-MP
Ramgarh-WB
Karanpura-Bihar

What are the different fluxes
1. Lime stone (CaCO
3
)
2. Dolomite (MgCO
3
)
Class-II
1. Crushing of the iron ores from ROM (Run off mine )
2. 10-40 mm size is used as lump ore in blast furnace
3. 6-8 mm and above 100 mesh is used for sintering
4. Below 100 mesh size ore is rejected or used to make pellets
5. So iron ore is charged in the blast furnace in the form of
a) Lump iron ore
b) Sinter
c) pellets

Ore beneficiation


Involves increasing the iron content of the ore from 55% to 65%

Why beneficiation is required
a) To increase the production of iron
b) To decrease the coke consumption rate

The above will result in decrease in slag volume


Sinter
Sintering is incipient fusion of iron ore particles at temperature
near the melting point resulting in the formation of agglomerates.

The process requires heat

Charge is a) iron ore fines- 6-8mm
b) flux 3 mm
c) coke breeze below 6 mm

Purpose of sintering : To utilize iron ore fines

What is the problem in charging iron ore fines in the blast furnace?
Steps preceding sintering
The raw materials are individually stored in bins
The materials are discharged from the bins in the prescribed amounts
onto conveyor belt
A shuttle type conveyor belt takes all the materials together to the
bedding and blending yard
The discharge from the conveyor is heaped in the shape of triangular
piles of the mixed materials on the ground
The mix is scooped and arranged in the form of long horizontal layers
~300 layers make one bed
Sintering process
Iron ore fines of size less than 10mm are
sintered to produce lumps of size range 5-
40 mm

Sintering machine : Dwight-lloyd
It is 8 m in width, 500 m
2
useful grate area
Production capacity: 24,000t/day
It is an endless band of pallets moving over rails
there are two large pulleys, one of which is
driven by a motor through a reduction gear system
The raw materials are loaded at one end of the
machine and the top layer is ignited as it comes
under a fixed ignition hood
As the pallets move the ignited portion comes
over a series of stationary wind boxes connected to
an exhaust blower.
sintering of the charge is completed by the time
the pallet travels over nearly the whole useful
length of the machine.



The sintered cake drops out at the other end when the pallets turn upside down
The cake is broken, screened and the over size is cooled

The undersize usually -9mm is returned to the machine for resintering whereas the oversize
after rescreening goes to the blast furnace as charge

From the discharge end the pallets return to the feed end in inverted overhung fashion on
rails

The exhaust gases are let off into the atmosphere through a chimney after dust extraction

So the important parts of the machine and its accessories

1. Storage bins, mixers, feeders
2. Charge leveller
3. Ignition hood
4. Band of pallets and rail for its movement
5. Drive mechanism
6. Sinter breaker, screen, cooler
7. Spillage controller
8. Windboxes, dust extractor, exhaust fan, chimney