Iron production in low-shaft furnace plants with Indian raw materials

Abstract

CONVENTIONAL iron production in a blast-furnace is based on lumpy or agglomerated burden or their optimum comb- ination employing strong and abrasion-resistant metallur- gical-coke. Smelting of iron in a low-shaft furnace can, however, be undertaken with non-metallurgical coke and lignite coke. The use of one component self-fluxing briquetted burden or lumpy charge of sized iron ore fines and fuel, has been investigated in the Low-Shaft Furnace Pilot Plant of the National Metallurgical Laboratory. India has more or less uniformly dispersed deposits of good iron ore in the country. Coal reserves of India on a conservative estimate are 'figured at 20 000 million tonnes of which only 1 500 million tonnes are coking coal suitable for conversion into strong metallurgical coal. Deposits of metallurgical coal lie over a small geogra-phical area on the Bengal-Bihar border in India. As such, iron smelting plants in different parts of India utilizing regional iron ores and non-metallurgical fuels present attractive possibilities thereby eliminating expensive and over-congested rail transport of foundry grades of pig iron which is subsidized by the State to maintain uniform selling prices thereof in all parts of the country.