Carburizationeffectsonpigironnuggetmaking-Chemical.PDFVIP

Carburization effects on pig iron nugget making B. Anameric, K.B. Rundman and S.K. Kawatra Graduate student, Dept. of Chemical Engineering; professor, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; and professor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, respectively, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan Abstract The iron nugget process is an economical, environmentally friendly, cokeless, single-step pig iron making pro- cess. Residence-time dependent process requirements for the production of pig iron nuggets at a fixed furnace temperature (1,425°C) were investigated. Depending on the residence time in the furnace, three chemically and physically different products were produced. These products were direct reduced iron (DRI), transition direct reduced iron (TDRI) and pig iron nuggets (PIN). The increase in the carbon content of the structure as a func- tion of residence time was detected by optical microscopy and microhardness measurements. Sufficient carbon dissolution for the production of pig iron nuggets was obtained after a residence time of 40 minutes. The pig iron nuggets produced had chemical and physical properties similar to blast furnace pig iron. They were liquid-state products, and the slag was completely separated from the metal. Key words: Pig iron nuggets, Direct reduced iron, Transition direct reduced iron, Carburization Introduction • Energy conservation due to utilization of dried green Blast furnace technology is still the primary method for balls instead of indurated (heat hardened) pellet or pig iron production. The schematic process flowsheet sinter (Figs. 1 and 2). and requirements are shown in Fig. 1. The success of