Influence of Oxygen Supply in an Iron Ore Sintering Process

Abstract

The current issues of sintering technology in the iron and steel making industry are how to increase productivity of sintering process and to maintain proper quality of sintered ore. In the conventional sintering bed, combustion of solid fuel supplies heat required for sintering while it generates imbalance of heat concentration in the bed. The unevenly distributed heat is considered to be problematic on the quality aspect of sintered ore. Therefore, in order to maximize the production rate and quality of the products, an investigation for improved operational mode is indispensable. In this study, the effect of additional oxygen supply with an adjustment of injection location is discussed. Scale downed pot tests in addition to computation by previously developed unsteady 1-dimensional sintering bed model are employed for the examination. Also, quantitative parameters are applied to evaluate the changes of sintering process and the combustion characteristics are systemically analyzed among designed cases. The reactivity of coke combustion tends to increase with the enrichment of oxygen in the induced air. However, the degree of change in the sintering time as well as effective heat supply varies according to the locations of oxygen injection.