Development of fluxed micropellets for sintering utilising iron oxide waste fines

Ultrafine iron oxide wastes such as slime, blue dust and Linz–Donawitz (LD) converter sludge have very limited use in sintering of iron ore due to their excessive fineness (−50μmm). Pelletisation of these ultrafine materials for use in blast furnace involves high temperature curing, which is a highly energy intensive process. Briquetting of LD sludge requires costly binders and contains high moisture, which creates problem at high temperature of the downstream process. In order to alleviate these problems, the current study has developed a process for preparing micropellets of waste iron oxide fines (2–6 mm size) without using any binder. The strength of the micropellet has been increased by a novel CO2 treatment process at room temperature. Developed micropellets exhibit very suitable drop strength (125 Nos), tumbler properties and cold compressive strength (∼9 kg/pellet) to withstand cold handling. Low lime containing micropellets have the possibility of being used as a mixed material in usual sinter making, and high lime containing micropellets may be exploited for making super fluxed sinter that can be used as synthetic flux in the basic oxygen furnace process towards the formation of low melting oxidising slag at the early stage of blow.