Iron-making processes

Catalan An early iron-making process in which selected ores were reduced with charcoal and the slag was expelled from the product by hammering while hot. See also Bloomeiy. 

South Blackwater and Ensham coal are shipped from Gladstone port in QLD, Australia to the Jindal COREX plant in India. The COREX process is a unique and modem process of iron making that has many distinct advantages over the conventional blast furnace iron making process. The COREX process does not required coking coal and uses only thermal coal for generating heat, reduction gas and adequate permeability. The properties of South Blackwater and Ensham coal used in the Jindal COREX plant are given in Table 1. 

Let us take the example of iron oxide reduction in solid state by carbon monoxide, as it happens in the sponge iron making process. 

Temperatures involved are in the vicinity of 1000 °C (i.e. 1273 °K). Therefore AF° value is + 2,340 calories. The k value comes out to be about 0.4. This means that partial pressure of CO2 should not be more than 0.4 times the partial pressure of CO for sponge iron making process to proceed. Stated differently, the partial pressure of CO should be at least 2.5 times that of CO2 for successful sponge iron making. No wonder that in sponge iron making process all care is taken to keep CO2 as far away from the sponge iron bed as possible. Further, conditions are so maintained that any CO2 produced in the solid bed is quickly converted back to CO. 

From the analysis of several archaeological samples by micro-PIXE, Neff and Dillmann (2001) have shown that ores containing important amount of phosphorus were used in ancient Europe to obtain iron by two different processes called the direct one and the indirect one. Phosphorus content was quantified as the heterogeneous phosphorus distribution was observed in the samples. The results confirm the fact that refining of phosphorus pig iron was possible with ancient refining processes. Moreover it seems that the phosphorus distribution ratio could be a discriminating factor to identify the iron making process. 

Kloeckner/CRA Process (29). The Kloeckner/CRA molten-iron bath coal gasification process was originally very similar to the KHD process. However, developers have modified it for use in a new iron making process called HIselt being developed by CRA and Midrex. A large pilot plant is under construction in western Australia. It is likely that this process could produce excess coal-derived fuel gas like the COREX process. 

Xuewei LV, The Construction of Evaluation System of Iron Ore in Iron-making Process [D]China College of Materials Science and Engineering of Chongqing University,2010. 

During the formulation of a refractory, close attention is given to a refractory composition in choosing the refractory grains and the bonding system. Thus, refractories used in an iron-making process will differ from that of a steel-making... 

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