PROCESS FLOW

● Raw material handling yard receives iron ore (hematite or magnetite), coal (Bituminous) and flux from their respective
mines
o The iron ore then undergoes beneficiation (lean iron ore🡪 rich iron ore) after which it is segregated on the basis
of size of the ore to be used for lump ore, sintering and pelletization.
o The coal is sent to the coke oven where it is heated in the absence of oxygen and gives off Carbon monoxide,
Volatile materials and ash and turns into coke
o The flux in the form of limestone and dolomite is directly put into sinter plant to produce sinter, is put in blast
furnace to form slag and is also used in Lime Calcination Plant to produce lime and dolo lime.
● Blast Furnace receives the sinter, coke and flux to reduce iron to pig iron or hot metal.
o The sinter, pellets or lump ore contains iron in the form of iron oxide which is reduced to iron.
o This happens with the help of coke which acts as a reducing agent as well as a source of heat and also provides
mechanical strength to the charge.
o The Limestone and Lime charged in the BF helps in absorbing the oxide impurities and Dolomite helps in
absorbing impurities like FeO, SiO2, P2O5, MnO, Al2O3 and S.
o The Hot Blast Air, heated to 1000-1200 oC, is blown through tuyeres along with some amount of oil, natural gas
and pulverized coal(Pulverized Coal Injection (PCI) is a process that involves blowing large volumes of fine coal
granules into the BF. This provides a supplemental carbon source to speed up the production of metallic iron,
reducing the need for coke production. As a result energy use and emissions can be reduced).
o On regular intervals, the blast furnace tap hole is drilled out to allow the molten iron to tap into a runner and
down into a torpedo car or molten iron ladle for transportation to SMS( BOF or EAF).
o A refractory gate redirects the slag on top of the molten iron to a slag pot.
o The blast furnace gas is sent to the Gas Cleaning Plant and later mixed with the gases from BOF and Coke Oven
plant. The resulting gas mixture has high calorific value which can be used in a downstream process and the
remaining can be sent to a Gas Turbine Power Plant to produce additional power.
● HMDP (Hot Metal Desulphurization Plant) receives the hot metal where the Sulphur is removed via Dip Lance Process
using reagents like Lime, Calcium Carbide and Magnesium.
● Basic Oxygen Furnace or Converter receives the desulphurized hot metal from HMDP along with steel scrap and flux
(burnt lime) and converts the carbon rich hot metal to steel. An air separation plant supplies oxygen to the BOF.
o The flux helps in removing Mn in the form of MnO and more importantly reacts with Carbon in hot metal to give
CO and CO2.
o The generation of CO and CO2 produces heat and to avoid any failure due to excessive heat we add scrap metal to
bring down the temperature to around 1650 oC.
o The carbon percentage reduces from 4% to 0.04% after this process.
o The steel is further required to go through secondary metallurgical station (ladle furnace) and/or a vacuum
degasser prior to solidification.
● Ladle Furnace further heats the liquid steel using electricity generated by graphite electrodes.
o It is here that the alloy addition, mainly ferro alloys, takes place to add desirable properties.
o Homogenization of steel temperature chemistry takes place through purging with inert gases like N 2 and Argon.
● Degassing Unit further oxidizes the steel which pushes the reaction of generation of CO and CO 2 forward and therefore
further reduces the carbon content of the steel to as low as 0.001%.
 ● Vacuum Degasser percolates Argon gas to lower the concentration of dissolved gases like H 2, N2 & O2, homogenize the
liquid steel composition and temperature and removes oxide inclusion materials from the liquid steel.
o The steel produced through this unit is ultra-low carbon steel as generation of oxygen pushes the formation of CO
and CO2 forward.
● Caster unit receives the molten steel from where it is continuously cast into either flat products or long products.
o Long products can be casted in :
▪ Billet caster – Billets are semi-finished long products with a square cross-section of edge less than 200
mm. Depending on the products desired, the billets are sent to respective mills to be formed into rebar,
wire rod, bars and/or merchant product via overhead crane, rail cars, or mobile carriers.
▪ Bloom Caster - Blooms are semi-finished long products with a rectangular cross-section with sides greater
than 200 mm. The blooms are then sent to structural mills to be formed into a particular cross section or
are sent to merchant mills for different cross section products.
▪ Beam Blank Caster- It produces the long products which are to be further made into beams and therefore
for ease of formability produce semi-finished products of near net shape of the final products and are
then sent to mills like structural mills where it is made into shapes like rail rods, I-beams, etc.
o Flat products can be casted in:
▪ Slab Caster- It casts the molten steel into slabs of dimensions: 200-250 mm thickness, 800-2000 mm
width (for sheet)/1500-3000 mm width (for plate).
▪ Thin Slab Caster – It also casts the molten steel into slabs but of much less thickness: 50-150 mm
thickness, 800-1700 mm width.
● Hot Strip Mill – The slabs are then sent to HSM where the rolling operation is performed on the steel above its
recrystallization temperature and produce hot rolled coils of reduced thickness. These HRC can then be sent to sale
directly, pickling and oiling stations to give Hot Rolled Pickled and Oiled Steel and/or to Cold Rolling Mill
● Tandem Cold Rolling Mill – The HRC is sent to pickling station before coming to TCM. At TCM, the HRC is cooled at room
temperature and cold rolled at a temperature below the recrystallization temperature of steel to reduce the thickness
and give cold rolled coils. These CRC can then be sent to Continuous Annealing Line, for Hot Dip Galvanizing, for tinning
and/or for tempering according to requirement of the customer.

PLANT LAYOUT

Plant layout is the most effective physical arrangement, either existing or in plans of industrial facilities i.e. arrangement of machines,
processing equipment and service departments to achieve greatest coordination and efficiency of 4 M’s (Men, Materials, Machines and
Methods) in a plant.

The layout is to be planned to have smooth technological process flow of materials and utilities with the least amount of handling
from receipt of raw materials to the dispatch of the finished products. It should help in minimizing both capital and operation cost
of the plant.

Following are the considerations for a plant layout:

 ● Knowledge of process flow so that the units can be placed such that the process is in a straight line or the transportation
time is minimum.
● External Linkages: The site is chosen such that it has good connectivity to rail or road transport to reduce time and
thereby cost of transportation.
● Considering the product quality, wind directions should be taken into account such that the dust and fine particles that
can be carried away by air, cannot contaminate the finished product.
● There should be adequate supply of water and electricity with backup for uninterrupted operation of plant.
● Internal Logistics: Determination of number of wagons and number of rails that are to be provided along with a
maintenance plan to avoid any unnecessary delays and temperature loss of hot metal or molten steel.
● Scope of future expansion, for e.g., in terms of capacity and downstream and upstream facility.
● 30% Green Belt/ Open Area is a must in the area allocated to the plant according to the Govt. guidelines. Also, the plant
has to be 100-200 m from coastline.
● Waste disposal and waste management are important for disposal of slag and hazardous material and also for recovery of
useful material for utilization of the materials to the fullest.

IRON ORE, BENEFICIATION, PELLETIZATION, SINTERING

● Iron Ore
○ It is a mineral which is extracted and processed for the production of iron and steel
○ Iron ore’s main constituents include: Iron (Fe) in the form of oxides, Al203, SiO2, MgO, SO2, P2O5.
○ types of iron ore are magnetite (Fe3O4, 72.4% Fe), hematite (Fe2O3, 69.9% Fe), goethite (FeO(OH), 62.9%
Fe), limonite (FeO(OH)·n(H2O), 55% Fe) or siderite (FeCO3, 48.2% Fe).
○ hematite and magnetite- natural or direct shipping ore because of Iron Content
○ type of iron ore selected on the basis of availability, alumina content and facilities available in the plant.
● Beneficiation
○ It is the process of converting a lean iron ore into a rich iron ore by removing gangue from the ore and
thereby increasing the iron ore content.
○ The beneficiation process comprise of the following stages
■ Ball Mill
● a grinder which can be used for grinding, blending and mixing of materials
● works on the principle of impact and attrition
● has balls inside a rotating drum which are made of steel, stainless steel, ceramic or rubber
which rise with the rotation of drum and fall on the feed and so the size of the particle gets
reduced.
● size gets reduced from <10mm to 0.045 mm.
● feedback in case the output mix is not of the required size.
● wet and dry ball mill (selection on the basis of ore quality); dry ball mill gives iron powder and
wet ball mill gives a slurry
■ Magnetic Separator
● process of separating components of mixtures by using magnets to attract magnetic
materials. Here, it is used to separate the non-magnetic gangue from the iron ore.
● types of magnetic separator - High Intensity Magnetic Separator (HIMS) and Low Intensity
Magnetic Separator (LIMS)
 ● the selection of type depends upon the ore - Hematite ore being paramagnetic requires HIMS
and Magnetite ore being ferromagnetic requires LIMS for separation of non magnetic gangue.
■ Hydro cyclone
● The working principle used here is centrifugal force.
● the idea is to create a cyclone and because of centrifugal force the heavy particles move to
the side and lighter and fine particles move to the centre. The vortex formed at the centre
creates a pressure difference that allows the lighter part to be separated from the top and the
heavier part is separated from the below of Hydro cyclone separator.
● the heavier particles can be again fed to the ball mill for further size reduction.
■ Filtration - the slurry obtained is then sent for filtration where we can obtain a richer iron ore in the
form of cakes. The filtration process can be carried by either of the two types of filter depending upon
cost benefits and productivity:
● Vacuum Ceramic Filter - This filter comprises of ceramic discs which are rotated by a hollow
shaft. The vacuum created in the shaft applies a suction force at the discs. The liquid part of
the slurry is sucked whereas solid part sticks to the discs. It is then dried and scraped off by
the scrapers and we get what is called as concentrate.
● Filter Press or Pressure Filter - In this process, the slurry is pumped into the filter press and is
dewatered under pressure. Solids build up on the filter cloth, forming the filter cake. The
filtrate exits the filter plates through the corner ports of the plate assembly.
● Pelletization
○ Pelletizing is a process that involves mixing very finely ground particles of iron ore fines of size less than 200
mesh with additives like bentonite and then shaping them into oval/spherical lumps of 8-16 mm in diameter
by a pelletizer and hardening the balls by firing with a fuel.
○ Dry iron powder from dry ball mill or concentrate from filters are mixed with flux, bentonite and coal
(Anthracite) in a predetermined proportions in a mixer.
○ The mixer can be horizontal or vertical mixer depending on the hardness of the mix. If the mix is hard then
horizontal mixer would be chosen otherwise for softer mix vertical mixer is chosen.
○ The mix is then transported to pellet discs….