10/24/2012

Direct Reduced Iron:

Good Food for the Blast Furnace
Thomas P. Battle, Midrex Technologies Inc.
Paulo F. Nogueira, Vale S. A.

Agenda
Background
Blast furnace Briquetted Iron (BFBI)
Current project

10/24/2012

Background
Define HBI and process
BF use for metallics
BF history with HBI

Primary Iron: BF-BOF vs DR-EAF

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Evolution of DR Processes and Products

Product of DR Processes

Oxide Pellets

Porosity (approximate)

DRI

~20%

~50%

2.2

1.4

Compression Strength (daN) 290

90

Bulk Density (kg/m3)

HBI

5%?
5.2
(apparent)
>900

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DRI/HBI customers
Primary market has always been steelmaking
furnaces
Use in EAFs 94-96% of total
BOF most of remainder

Use in blast furnaces very secondary

400,000 tonnes 2009, 100,000 in 2010
less than 1% of total

HBI use only

Improved size and strength compared to DRI
Technological benefits proven

History of HBI to BF
Conceptually, by adding metallic Fe to a BF, one
should be able to:
increase productivity (since melting only)
decrease coke use (not as much reduction required)
decrease CO2 (replacing some coke with natural gas)

Testing in time period 1964-1978 quantified

relationships
productivity increase 8% per 10% metallic addition
coke consumption decreases 7% per 10%

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Productivity increase with metallization while

Coke Consumption Decreases

Source: NSC Technical Report, 2006

From Use of DRI in Ironmaking, in Direct Reduced

Iron ISS, 1999

Economics of BF operation using HBI

Direct from Midrex, 2Q2010

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How to increase HBI use in BFs?

Evaluate on a case-by-case basis
facilities that are hot metal limited
facilities facing high coke prices
facilities with old blast furnaces
replace lost BF capacity (cheaper than re-lining)
great savings for this reason at AK Steel

facilities facing increased GHG emission costs

What about making HBI tailored to a BF, rather

than an EAF?

BF vs DR grade pellets

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Technical issues in creating BFBI

Processing BF pellets through shaft furnace
Essar Steel data on use of BF pellets
Emirates and Lisco have operated with BFP partial
burden due to poor availabilty/higher cost

Making hot briquettes of sufficient quality

expect briquettes might not be as strong, certainly
not as dense

Goals of project
Make HBI from BF-grade pellets
determine whether BFBI has enough strength
density likely below 5.0, but verify
could aim for higher C levels?

Start with 2 potential Vale BF pellets

characterize and compare to DR pellets

hot compaction testing
large scale reduction
hot briquetting

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Pellet characterization
Midrex Raw Materials Evaluation
standard series of tests conducted on ~600 pellets
and lump ores over the past 40 years
indication of how pellets will stand up to
reduction conditions in the shaft furnace

Tests conducted
characterization of oxide pellets
Hot Load, Linder, ISO 11256-11258

Oxide Pellet Results

Sulfur - S
bulk density
screen structure
+5/8" (16.0 mm)
+1/2" (12.7 mm)
+3/8" (9.53 mm)
+3 Mesh (6.73 mm)
+6 Mesh (3.36 mm)
-6 Mesh (3.36 mm)
Compression strength
average
high
low
std dev
Tumble Test Indices
+3 Mesh (6.73 mm)
+6 Mesh (3.36 mm)
+28 Mesh (0.595 mm)
estimated yard fines

DR
RM20
0.003
2066

BF
Tuberao
0.007
2016

BF
Sao Luis
0.009
2029

DR
#1
0.003
2211

1Q
RME
0.003
2119

Mean

3Q
Pellets
Specs
0.008
0.007 < 0.008%
2186
2265

2.0
50.3
98.9
99.1
99.1
0.9

7.9
61.8
96.6
99.6
99.7
0.3

22.8
93.4
99.3
99.6
99.7
0.3

0.9
37.6
90.0
99.0
99.4
0.6

1.5
26.2
91.4
97.9
98.9
0.2

6.1
42.2
94.1
98.1
99.0
0.99

7.7
57.4 > 95%
98.9(9 x 16 mm)
99.7
99.8< 3% -5 mm
1.01

304
437
174
69

309
647
84
138

362
633
110
118

256
436
38
107

239
398
86

286
447
131

329 > 250

532
168 < 2% -50

94.4
94.7
94.8
1.3

94.2
94.5
94.5
1.4

93.1
93.8
94.1
2.0

95.2
96.2
97.3
0.9

93.0
93.7
94.1

93.7
94.4
94.8

95.9
96.4
96.5

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Linder Results
Metallization
Carbon - C
Gangue (Calc.)

DR
RM20
96.0
2.04
4.15

BF
Tuberao
93.8
3.5
8.04

BF
Sao Luis
94.4
3.1
10.0

DR
#1
94.1
1.76
6.34

1Q
RME
91.9
0.86
3.8

Mean

3Q
Pellets
92.9
95.5
1.23
1.35
5.9
6.1

+1/2" (12.7 mm)

47.1

56.8

80.9

70.5

1.7

26.2

43.7

+3 Mesh (6.73 mm)

+6 Mesh (3.36 mm)
-6 Mesh (3.36 mm)

97.7
97.8
2.2

99.0
99.7
0.3

94.9
97.4
2.6

95.8
97.8
2.2

90.6
94.3
0.8

91.9
93.9
5

98.6
99.3
4.8

42
69
16
16

32
59
16
13

97
189
7
56

31
54
17
10

30

46

58

Compression Strength
average
high
low
st dev

Specs
> 93

< 2%

RME Summary
Physical properties of BF pellets likely
acceptable for DR plant operation
gangue level, of course, too high for most EAFs
may need to remove coarse fraction

This does not guarantee product will make

adequate briquettes
Initial testing, hot compaction

10/24/2012

Hot Compaction Testing

Simplest test to assess
potential issues with hot
briquetting
DRI heated in small furnace
Compacted at
temperature using
Tinius-Olsen
compaction machine
Potential variables to
study:
DRI properties
compaction
temperature
pressure
19

2011 Midrex Technologies,

Inc. All rights reserved.

Hot Compaction results

Vale material shows variability between DRI created in HL vs LRF, but generally follows trends

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10/24/2012

Midrex Tech Center

briquetting facility
Kppern briquetter
capable of processing
material at variable
temperatures, pressures,
and die sets

- our briquetter is 750 mm roll diameter;

commercial 1.0 or 1.4.
- quality of pellets essentially the same
- might have slightly better quality at
smaller scale due to reheating and
21
annealling

2011 Midrex Technologies,

Inc. All rights reserved.

Briquetting Results

Except for cold run, material briquetted at 600-650C

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10/24/2012

Status
Results favorable enough to proceed to next stage
Negotiating with Midrex HBI plant to process
10-40,000 tonnes of BF pellet to BFBI
verify shaft furnace operability with 100% BF pellets
establish strength and density under commercial
conditions
make enough BFBI for BF trials

Open issue according to IMO, material will probably

not be HBI
Would economics improve with BFBI of lower
metallization?

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