IRON MAKING

One of the standard practices today to produce pig iron is to use sinter plant and then a blast furnace (BF). This technology is reliable and working everywhere. Different types of ore are treated to become hot metal and to be sent further to the steel production processes in converters and also portions to electric arc furnaces (EAF). This way of working is typical for plants, which consume mainly iron ore.

The plants that uses only EAF process are based mainly on the scrap. EAF process cannot work completely with hot metal, but several solutions are available.
For example: some amount of directly reduced iron or cold briquetted iron (DRI/CBI) or hot metal can be charged into EAF together with the scrap. This practice becomes popular for EAF-plants due to possible problems with increasing lack of scrap. In the same moment, the quality of DRI/CBI or hot metal to charge has to be verified in order to arrive to best process performance and economy.

SINTER PLANT

Sinter plants treats iron ore fines with other coal fine materials at high temperature, in order to prepare a product that can be sent to a BF. The sinter, is a small, irregular nodule of iron mixed with small amounts of other minerals. The process, called sintering, causes the constituent materials to fuse to make a single porous mass with little change in the chemical properties of the ingredients.

BF

A blast furnace is used for smelting to produce pig iron. Coke, ores, and limestone are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while a hot blast of air (sometimes with oxygen and carbon enrichment) is blown into the lower section through tuyeres. The chemical reactions take place as the material falls downward. The end products are molten metal and slag phases tapped from the bottom.

RHF

A rotary hearth furnace allows to produce directly reduced iron (DRI) and cold briquetted iron (CBI) from fine ores, as well as to recover metal from wastes of steel making (blast furnace dust, EAF dust, mill scale). The process has no CO2, emission being environmental friendly. Apart of this, a RHF can recover zinc from metallurgical wastes, allowing to sale a high-grade raw material for zinc refining.

EDF

An electric DRI furnace is used to smelt (hot) DRI in order to produce hot metal (HM) for EAF or Converter. DRI and self-baking electrode paste are charged automatically into EDF from the top. Zero man are present in the area of EDF, all operations are done from the pulpit. The process has no CO2 emission, being environmental friendly and does not depend on coke. Melting goes with electric arc and reduction goes with semicoke that is added into EDF (arriving from RHF).