Smelting of sponge iron fines for the production of steel grade iron

Abstract

India is the largest producer of sponge iron for last few years. Presently its contribution to world production is more than 25% mainly by rotary kiln coal based process.In India coal based production of sponge iron is about 76% of its total production. The present investigation to smelt sponge iron fines in bench scale furnace is of great significance from industrial point of view. These fines were smelted in 50KVA submerged arc furnace (SAF) using the fines of petro-coke as reductant and that of lime stone as flux for the production of steel grade iron. The hot metal so produced was having low percentage of phosphorus, sulphur and manganese and the silicon content in the hot metal was found to be comparable with that of hot metal produced by Indian blast furnaces. The power consumption in 50 KVA sub- merged arc furnace was on much higher side compared to commercial plant.