Contribution of green pellet properties in induration of iron oxide pellet production

Abstract

Now-a-days, the most of the entrepreneurs and industrialists are looking forward to the value added product called iron oxide pellets in the iron ore mining segments world wide. Obviously, it is much needed as the percentage of available lump iron ore is getting exhausted in a rapid manner due to rapid industrialization/ infrastructural needs across the globe. The conventional sinter plants all over the world become in-compatible to meet the requirements of Blast Furnace route of iron making and thereby steel making.Therefore, the method of pelletizing the fine dust generated during mining operations(particle size ranging up to 45 micron) came in to existence all over the world.Unfortunately, some of the running pellet plants all over the world especially in India are not performing well and up to the standard design out puts. It is not due to the design faults and/ or installation and machinery faults, but attributable to operational aspects.Therefore, this paper basically discusses and illustrates about the necessity of basic operational parameters which are to be maintained consistently in order to achieve the desired results in the so called value added product, pellets. It is very important to maintain the requisite physical and chemical properties of the Green-Pellet for Induration in pellet making process.The pelletizing process is quite flexible which can be tuned to the requirement of the end users. It is also to be noted that the cost burden for converting the dust/ fine particles into the desired agglomerates is an immense factor which can also be controlled by properly maintaining the basic and the standard operational parameters while doing the greenpellet production. The parameters vital for green-pellet production in any successful pelletizing plant are observed : (1) Mineralogy, Grind, Blaine and the moisture content in the concentrate; (2) Percent dosage of additives (Proportioning) in the feed concentrate for green-pellet production; (3) The Green ball shaping and sizing; and (4) Drop number,green crushing strength, porosity and bulk density as Green-ball properties.