Objective
The objective of the work is to verify and eventually propose to competent industry for large scale demonstration the feasibility of an advanced environmentally friendly process for cast iron production according to a JRC patent. The reduction of iron ore is performed normally coke, carbon and/or gaseous mixtures of water/carbon monoxide/hydrogen. These processes contribute sensibly to the world-wide carbon dioxide emission from human activities. The attempts to produce iron by reduction with hydrogen have always applied multistage fluidized bed processes starting from hematite through magnetite and/or wustite. Especially in the last stage the particles tend to stick together leading to the breakdown of the fluidized bed. Furthermore, the final product obtained by this process is a highly reactive (pyrophoric) iron sponge which must by cast under exclusion of water and air.
The reduction of iron ore shall be studied in a unique process step above the melting temperature of iron (more than 1535 C) in a molten iron bath, through which hydrogen is injected. The parameters to be evaluated are:
Partial pressure of hydrogen
Influence of temperature
Behaviour of impurities present in the natural iron ores
Influence of the water fraction in the reacting gas mixture
In order to improve the energy balance of this process it is also necessary to develop a technologically applicable method for separating the water vapours from the residual hydrogen in the exhaust reaction gas stream at high temperature.
Topic(s)
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21020 Ispra
Italy