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IRONMAKING

Recycling

of steel plant wastes through Corex

Corex 2000 units at JSW Steel

Unit Process
Calcination plant
Refractories plant
Sinter plant
Coke Ovens
Pellet plant
Blast furnaces

By-product
Lime fines, semi-calcined lime,
lime stone undersize
Refractories waste
Electro-filter dust, air borne dust
Coke breeze, tar, coke oven gas
Pelletisation slurry
B F gas, top gas dust & sludge,
cast house & bunker house
dedusting, and granulate from
slag treatment
Corex sludge, slag, gas

JSW Steel is an integrated plant operating both Corex units and

blast furnaces for ironmaking. The range of processes used
generate iron ore fines, mill scale, DRI fines, nut coke, BOF slag,
Corex sludge, limestone and dolomite fines which are all being
successfully recycled through Corex.
BY P PRACHETHAN KUMAR, D GUPTA, US YADAV,
V R SEKHER AND T K NAHA

he scarcity of good quality

coking coal for the blast
furnace has made plant
Slag, dust and vessel quarry
providers and steelmakers
L D gas, slag, sludge, primary
look for iron making process
& secondary dedusting dust,
requiring little if any coke. Corex
vessel slopping and quarry
emerged as one such process. It was
Secondary
developed to use non-coking coal as
steelmaking
Slag, dust and vessel quarry
fuel and pellet as iron bearing feed. It is
Rolling mill
Mill scale
superior on the environmental front to
Pickling line
Sludge
the blast furnace as it does not require
Others
Foundry sand, biological
coke ovens. JSW Steel operates two
sludge, rubble, used oil etc.
Corex units each of 800kt/y capacity
commissioned in 1998. Over the years
Table 1 Common by-products in an integrated plant
it has developed the most efficient
operating parameters and has made
modifications in the raw materials design
Wastes
Amount (kg/t steel)
and operating philosophy. A significant
Ore beneficiation slurry
45
change in operation was to use pellet and
Pellet plant slurry
22
lump ore in the shaft instead of the original
BF slag
320
pellet, coal and coke charge. Another
B F sludge
5
important change was the commencement
BF flue dust
15
B F gas
1900
of the charging of plant wastes1,2. Up to
Corex slag
326
140kg/thm of plant wastes can be recycled.
Corex sludge
50
The wastes contain mineral values, thus
Corex gas
2142
BOF slag
230
besides protecting the environment
BOF sludge
12
recycling recovers the mineral value and so
BOF slopping
5
preserves natural resources and eliminates
BOF quarry
2.5
disposal costs.
Ladle quarry
3.5
Corex
HM
desulphurisation
BOF steelmaking

BOF gas
Sec. steelmaking slag
Mill scale
Limestone fines

75
10
20
27

COREX PROCESS

Corex is a smelting reduction3,4 process. It

consists of two reactors; a reduction shaft
placed above a melter-gasifier. The raw
materials (pellet, iron ore, coke and
Wastes
Size (mm)
Extent
fluxes are continuously charged into
of charge
the reduction shaft. Reduction gas is
injected through the bustle at 850C.
Iron bearing materials
The gas moves in a counter current
Iron ore
0-10
Normal: 8-10%
direction to the top of the shaft and
Pellet fines
1-6.3
Maximum:16%
exits at around 250C. The metallics
Mill Scale
0-6.3
are reduced to over 70% metallisation
Carbonaceous materials
by the gases from the melter-gasifier.
Coke fines
0-6.3
Normal:10-14%
The hot DRI along with partially
Coal fines
0-6.3
Maximum: 16%
calcined fluxes from the shaft are fed
Fluxing materials
Limestone and
into the melter-gasifier at around
dolomite fine mix
0-6.3
Up to 6%
800C. Additionally, non-coking coal is
Dolomite fines
1-6.3
charged to this vessel. Oxygen is blown
BOF slag
6-40 Normal: 30-50 kg/thm through the tuyeres which gasifies the
Maximum: 70 kg/thm coal and generate CO. The dome
temperature is maintained at 1050C
Table 3 Proportions of wastes recycled through Corex
to 1100C and ensures cracking of
Table 2 Specific rate of waste generation

26 Steel Times International March 2007

volatile matter released from the coal. The

gas from the melter-gasifier is cooled to
850C through the addition of cooling gas
before feeding to the reduction shaft. The
hot metal and slag are tapped from the
bottom of the melter gassifier.

STEEL PLANT WASTES

Integrated steel plants process iron ore, coal
and limestone to produce steel. Processing is
carried out through various unit processes.
Each process generates one or more waste
products or by-products. Table 1 presents
common wastes as they arise in the different
production steps of an integrated steel
works employing pelletising, non-recovery
coke ovens, Corex and blast furnace
ironmaking and BOF steelmaking. The
specific amount of waste generation
depends on factors such as the quality of raw
materials, technological status, operating
philosophy, the final product mix etc. The
average specific rate of waste generation,
under typical Indian conditions, is tabulated
in Table 2 which are the condition existing at
JSW Steel Ltd. Total residues resulting
consist of: coal ash 10%, coal VM 24%,
coke ash 13%, coke sulphur 0.6%, Al2O3
in iron ore 2.4%, Al2O3 in pellet 2.6%,
phosphorus in iron ore 0.1% and sulphur
and phosphorus in steel less than 0.02 and
0.01% respectively. Although these residues
are rich in iron, flux and fuel values, the
general term wastes has been given to these
by-products. The environmental awareness
and recognition of the mineral values has
resulted in attempts to recycle them through
various unit processes and recover their
associated mineral content to the maximum.

RECYCLING THROUGH COREX

The waste residues recycled through
Corex at JSW Steel are categorised as: (a)
Iron bearing materials, (b) Carbonaceous
materials and (c) Fluxing materials. A total
of around 140kg/thm of wastes are recycled
through Corex. Fig 1 shows the total
amount of wastes recycled through Corex
since 2001. These wastes are used in certain
The authors are with JSW Steel Limited, Bellary,
Karnataka INDIA-583275