Iron Making—Historical 1-1. Ancient lron Making Although evidence of the use of iron is found in Egypt dating as far back as 6000 years B.C. it is believed that these were the remains of meteoric origin and not the product of smelting. In this connection it is of interest to note that the word iron is derived from words meaning something hard from the sky indicating that the ancients believed in iron to be of extra-terrestrial origin. The antiquity of iron has been the subject of considerable discus- sion among pre-historians, archeologists, anthropologists and others. The vedic hymns do have several reference to iron.The word ayas has been interpreted by some to mean iron and it closely resembles eisen which means iron in German. It is most likely that iron, as a product of smelting, was first found in ashes of a fire, set up by chance, near some outcrop of an iron rich mineral. In the history of human civilization the intentional heat- ing of iron mineral with charcoal heralded the beginning of iron ore smelting or ironmaking and subsequently, its fabrication into imple- ments and weapons marked the emergence of the Jron Age from the prior Brone Age. It should also be noted that in ancient times the term steel as distinct from iron was not known. Iron Age means in fact iron and steel age in the modern sense of the term. It may appear strange that although rich iron ores are widely distributed and even readily and abundantly available as outcrops the Tron Age followed the- Bronze Age much later. The anomaly can how- ever be easily understopod by the study of metallurgy of iron vis-a-vis copper. Being more nobler and having a lower melting point as com- pared to iron it is easier to smelt copper ore than iron ore, producing, a malleable product. Smelting of an iron ore to produce a malleable product developed later. This product which is now known as wrought iron did not attract enough attention until it was realised that repeated heating, in contact with charcoal, and hammering, followied by quench- Scanned with CamScanner2 MODERN IRON MAKING ing hardened the metal to an extent very much superior to brone. Ironmaking flourished rapidly thereafter. t India's most notable achievement in ancient metallurgy has been in the field of iron and steel and the products were renowned all over the then civilized world?. ‘A concise History of Science in India’ by'the Indian National Academy, gives details of the metallurgical develop- ments in the pre-historic and classical periods. Similarly N.R. Banerjee's "The Iron. Age in India’ mainly deals with the archeological studies per- taining to the production of iron and its related processing. These his- torical records indicate a highly developed iron culture in India for more than 3000 years old, producing wootz—the oldest steel. The records of the period earlier to 3000 years is however lost in antiquity. ‘The Ashok Iron Pillar near Kutub-Minar in Delhi is nearly 1500 years old. It is nearly 7 m tall and weighs nearly 7 tonnes. The diam- eter is 41 cm at the bottom and 30 cm at the top. It is considered to be a metallurgical wonder and stand& as the prestigeous monument to the skill and craftsmanship of the early metallurgist in India. It has been a challange to metallurgists all over the world ‘as to how it was made and why it has stood the ravages of atmospheric corrosion for over fifteen centuries}. Similarly the iron.pillars of Mandu, near Dhar and Mount Abu, in Rajasthan and, the iron pillars of the famous sun temple at Konark, Orissa are yet other important monuments of early Indian metallurgists. The art of smelting iron ore passed on from generation to gen- eration in the typical Indian verbal style observing meticulously all the finer details as laid down carlier. This tradition still continues in the tribal regions of some of the provinces in India. For further details the readers should refer ‘Iron in Ancient India® by P. Neogi or Iron Ores, Iron and Steel’ by M.S. Krishnan (G.S.I. Bulletin No.9) which describes the indigeneous processes of making iron and steel in different parts of India. There is a documentary film by Government of India on ironmaking by the tribles of Koraput district of Orissa. The primitive ironmaking involved construction of a furnace using stone and clay. Its-operation. consisted of charging a mixture of ore and charcoal and, after initial ignition blowing of air through the charge continuously until the operation was over. A simple, inexpen- sive and easy to work with furnace passed successively through various stages of developments which finally culminated into a giant modern blast furnace complex and expensive operation using computor control over all the related activities. This however. simultaneously in- creased the production rate from merely a few kilograms to several thousand tonnes of molten iron per ‘day per furnace. Scanned with CamScannerIRON MAKING—HISTORICAL 3 1-2. Historical Ironmaking Processes Study of inronmaking would be incomplete without understand- ing the successive stage of developments in ironmaking technology over the few hundred years in general and in the last few decades in particular. The primitive iron smelter constructed his smelting furnace either against a hillock or as bow] in the ground using clay and stones. Remains of the bow] design have been discovered dating around 400 B.C. Charcoal was used as a fuel and natural draught supplied the blast for burning the fuel. Oxygen of the blast burned the charcoal to produce heat and the carbon monoxide that was generated reduced the iron oxide to iron. The size of such a primitive furnace was nearly 30-60 cm in dia and nearly 50-60 cm deep bow] producing a spongy mass of iron weighing 1-3 kgs. The product was called a bloom and the place of production as bloomery in Europe. Once it was realised that the poor yield was due to the short time of contact of carbon monoxide with the ore it led to the construction of a shaft above the bowl. The increased height allowed longer contact of ore with the reducing gases and a higher recovery of iron was achieved. Such a furnace was constructed, with respect to the wind direction, in such a way that it operated on natural draught, with an opening pro- vided at the bottom of the furnace to admit air in and the exhaust gases to escape from the open top. Later the natural draught was replaced by forced air blast generated by the use of crude bellows made from animal hides. The designs persisted until the thirteen century. The next development took place in the thirteen century in the Spanish province of Catlonia for increasing the production rate and decreasing the fuel consumption. The smelting unit came to be known as Catalan Forge. The air bellow was replaced by a falling water device known as trompe to force air blast through the furnace. A pair of trompes was used for each furnace to keep an uninterrupted supply of blast to the furnace. In such a furnace about 0-5 t of 40-50% iron ore yielded about 100 kg of metal consuming nearly 1-5+ of charcoal and the opera- tion occupying nearly 12 hours. In Europe as the demand for iron grew the size of the Catalan furnace progressively increased resulting in the evolution of the Ger- man stukofen as shown in Fig: 1-1. This is considered to be the progeni- tor of the modern blast furnace. It was about 3-0—4-5 m in height, built of stone and clay and having a round or a rectangular cross-section. Air blast was supplied through two tuyeres by water-driven bellows and a false door was provided for the extraction of the blooms. Output of such a furnace was about 45-50 t per annum. Scanned with CamScanner4 MODERN IRON MAKING In the course of development using more dense charcoal, increased height of the furnace and maximum blast pressure eventually resulted in the generation of adequate temperature in the furnace such that the product was molten iron which flowed out from the furnace, as distinct from the slag impregnated blooms obtained from the earlier furnaces. The product, on solidification, was not malleable but it was soon realised that it could be cast into useful shapes. This perhaps is the origin of foundry. Ss SSS Fig. 1-1. Stukofen—The progenitor of the modern blast furnace. The product of Stukofen was run into a series of parallel chan- nels, where it cooled-and solidified, somewhat distantly resembling a nursing litter of pigs. This is how the term pig iron originated for the metallic product from an iron ore smelting furnace and it continues even today. The pig iron, after solidfication, was broken up, remelted and used for the production of castings. Thus cast iron was discovered. Once the product was obtained in molten condition the furnace operation could be made continuous by charging the material from the open top and tapping the liquid product from the bottom without inter- ruption. A simple and inexpensive process was thus superseded by a complex process to inerease the production rate and the same spirit Scanned with CamScannerIRON MAKING—HISTORICAL 5 continues to dominate this field even today. The data relevant to these different types of the furnaces are given in Table I-1. TABLE I-1 Weight of Fuel Recovery Production iron per cocnsumption % t/week smelting % of the ore operation (kgs) Blooming hearth 60—70 450 20 0-03—0-15 Catalan Forge 140—160 360 31 0-5—0-7 Stukofen 300—900 250 40 1-0—3-0 The solidified product of Stukofen i.e. pig iron was not workable in contrast te the malleable bloom secured from the blooming hearth and the Catalan Forge. The Stukofen therefore could not replace the earlier iron ore smelting processes until the development of puddling process by Cort in 1784 for conversion of iron into a malleable wrought iron. 1-3. Developments that led to Modern Ironmaking After the successful adoption of blast furnace for ironmaking in the fifteenth century the process continued to be adopted at an increas- ing number of places for nearly 200 years without any significant changes in its design and practice. Charcoal was universally used in those days as a fuel although it suffered from some disadvantages. Because of its friable nature charcoal as a fuel imposed severe limita- tions on the height of the furnace shaft. This resulted in restricting the size of the furnace and consequently its production rate. Charcoal was also expensive since the conversion of wood to charcoal itself accounted for nearly half of the total operatimg cost. The enormous amount of forest wood that was being consumed for this purpose finally led to the imposition of restrictive legislation on wood burning for charcoal. These reasons forced the rion smelters to look for an laternative to charcoal and obviously attention was forcussed on to coal which was far more widely available. Although the sulphur content of coal had earlier prevented its use in bloomeries fresh endeavours had to be started to find a way out of the sulphur problem ; presence of sulphur makes iron brittle during hot working. Another major difficulty was how to produce air blast at pressures capable of penetrating a column of material 6-8 m in height with water-powered bellows ? After several Scanned with CamScanner6 i MODERN IRON MAKING abortive attempts Dud Dudley successfully smelted iron ore with coal at the iron works in Worcestor in 1621. 1-3-1. Coke Furnace Areal breakthrough however had to wait until the advent of ‘coked coal’ with good strength and cellular structure. Abraham Darby successsfully smelted iron ore with coked coal, that is coke as is now called, in 1709. His success was mainly due to the employment of a large furnace and a powerful blast to cause ignition of the coke. This was made possible by the invention of steam engine by James Watt and its ingeneous adoption by John Wilkinson for producing a powerful blast. Being sufficiently strong, the use of coke permitted construction of much bigger furnaces for it could stand much taller overlying burden in the furnace. With its open cellular structure penetration of blast for efficient combustion could also be achieved. _1-3-2. Exhaust Gas Utilization Until the middle of the previous century the furnaces were open at the top and the waste gases used to burn at the top on their coming in contact with atmospheric air. In 1845 Bunsen and Playfair demon- strated the enormous wastage of heat in allowing the gases to burn at the top. They also concluded that these gases could be conducted elsewhere without in any way-interfering with the furnace operation for. burning of lime or brick kilns. The effective use of gas was however far from easy since it con- tained high amount of dust. The enlargement of the down-comer in the beginning served as a dust catcher and the gas thus cleaned could be used for preheating purposes with some difficulties. 1-3-3. Hot Blast Generation Several important discoveries, which led to improvement in ther- mal efficiency of the blast furnace, were made in the first half of the previous century. The observation that blast furnace output was better in winter months than in summer was quite erroneously attributed to its lower temperature in winter months than in summer. Neilson, a Scotish engineer, however conceived correctly in 1829 that the thermal efficiency of a blast furnace could be improved by using a preheated blast. Cast iron pipes were used to preheat the blast. The mechanical ingenuity of Cowper in 1857 finally led to the development of a stove to preheat the blast. The hot waste gases from the furnace-top were drawn, off to preheat the stove checker bricks, which in turn heated the blast later. This led to a very large saving in fuel consumption. The most modern blast furnace stove has still several of the features originally developed by Cowper himself. Scanned with CamScannerIRON MAKING—HISTORICAL 7 A minimum of three stoves, preferably four, one of which is on the blast while the others are being heated up, are attached to a mod- ern blast furnace. The clean gas lends itself to effective untilization and this contributes in no small measusre to the economy-of blast furnance operation. The successful adoption of Cowper stove for a blast furnace was possible mainly due to the development of cone and bell (or cup and cone) charging arrangement in 1850. In this a conical hopper was fitted on the furnace top. The hopper was closed or opened for charging by the bell. The exhaust gases could thus be carried through pipes to wher- ever required. The single bell design was later on improved to a double bell arrangement which continues to be used even today. 1.3.4. Blast Furnace Gas Cleaning ‘The use of Cowper stove for preheating the air blast necessitated the blast furnace exhaust gases to be thoroughly cleaned to avoid the dust contained in the gas from clotting the checker work in the stove. This led to the addition of an elaborate gas cleaning system to the blast furnace complex.” . In the beginning the coarse particles in the exhaust gases were removed by passing the gases through a large brick lined chamber in which.the velocity of the gases was reduced to allow their settling. This has now been developed into the dust-catcher. The finer particles which still remained in the ‘gas were removed in wet scrubbers wherein the gas was subjected to water sprays. Obstruction to the upward flow of gases by means of baffles ensured intimate contact of gas and water. The use of scrubbers could decrease the dust to a level of few grains per cubic meter. The cleanliness had to be improved still further in order to ensure smooth stove operation without clotting. The electrostatic precipitator was developed for this purpose by F.G. Cotrell in the early part of the present century. | An. assembly of dust catcher, scrubber and an electrostatic precipitator forms the gas cleaning system even in the modern blast -furnace plants. 1-3.5. Charging Devices The blast furnace could not have inerecsed its production rate but for the parallel developments in mechanical methods for handling of raw materials and the products of the furnace. By 1870 vertical hoits were used to lift the charge barrows to the furnace top where they were wheeled on to the-edge and the contents were dumped on to the bell. The job at the furnace top and pig casting bed had then been described as “tasks beyond human endurance”. In 1883 skip hoist was intro- duced on the famous Lucy furnace near Pittsburg. The bucket hoist Scanned with CamScanner8 . MODERN IRON MAKING also came into vogue in Germany around the same time. It was nota difficult matter to obtain the desired uniform distribution of the charge by manual charging. The mechanical charging however gave rise to a serious problem of distribution of charge in the furnace, a factor so vital to the smooth running of any furnace. The mechanical charging therefore led to the development of Brown, Neeland, and Mckee distri- bution systems to. distribute the charge more evenly in the, furnace. Although the distribution systems continue to improve in their design the principles are essentially the same. The mechanical charging led to the development-of stock bins, the high line and increasing level of automation in charging and weigh- ing, so much so that in a modern furnace these operations are carried out nearly fully automatically. By the beginning of the present century daily production of an individual furnace had reached nearly 100 tonnes of pig iron per day. Such a furnace required nearly a tone of air blast per minute i.e. nearly 1000 m3/min at atmospheric pressure. This was possible only by using centrifugal fan blower for it could only force such a large volume of blast across the resistance offered by the stove, the tuyers, the charge, ete. A 100 t/day furnace required nearly 200 t of ore, 100 t of coke, 50 t of limestone, etc. to be charged in the furnace daily. The eariler bucket charging arrangement had to be dispensed with to make way for a two- skiphoist charging arrangement. 1-2-6. Pig Casting Machine Until towards the end of the last century the liquid pig iron was cast in sand bed. The furnace was generally tapped once every eight hours and this allowed enough time for solidification, removal of solid pigs and preparation of the cast house for the next tapping. As the capacity of the furnace increased the amount of metal tapped at any time and the frequency of tapping increased and, in consequence the casting operation became too arduous and costly to be carried out manu- ally. Pig casting machine was therefore invented in 1894 by Uehling to expedite and mechanise the casting operation. The introduction of ba- sic open hearth hot-metal practice around the same time for conver- sion of molten iron into steel required the metal to be kept in stock and for which the mixer was developed. This thus eliminated much of the casting operation and only the foundry grade pig iron required pig cast- ing machine. +,, : 1-4, Modern Ironmaking The general outline of the modern blast furnace including its accessories like the stove, the gas cleaning sytem, the raw material storage facilities, charging system, etc. had been developed by the beginning of the present.century. The increase in production rate by Scanned with CamScannerIRON MAKING—HISTORICAL 9 this time had been m: ein the size of the furnace rather than due to any other significant innovation and changes in the furnace design and its operation. The works of Carnot, Clapeyron, Clausius, Helmohltz, Gibbs, Stir- ling and several others led t6 the establishment of the science of Physical sciences and having a remarkable mechanical ingenuity Bessemer, Kelly, Thomas, Siemens brothers, Martin, Heroult and sev- eral other could set the pace of large scale steelmaking by the end of the previous century. The advent of twentieth century marked the beginning of systematic investigations towards understanding of the physico-chemical - principles underlying the iron and steelmaking processes. The blast furnace operation underwent several modifications in its design and practice in the light of this understanding. The advan- tages of using screened raw materials, particularly sized ore and coke, became quite apparent. The agglomeration of ore fines as sinter or pellets proved as an economic burden in spite of the additional process- ing cost involved in these operations. These changes in the quality of burden resulted in a considerable increase in production rates from the same furnaces. The pace for developing the blast furnace operation to improve its production rate and decrease the fuel consumption, in particular that of coke, was set during and after the second world war. The use of fluxed and superfluxed sinter and/or pellets proved to be technically feasible and qualitatively a better burden than the sized ore or unfluxed agglomerate. Blast furnaces are now generally operated with at least some proportion of sinter and/or pellets. The proportion of sinter and/ or pellets has been progressively increased since 1950's so much so that in some of the most modern Japanese furnaces the enitre ore charge is in the form of sinter and/or pellets. The use of oxygen enriched blast and humidified blast is increas- ingly being used and is soon to become a common practice. Similarly blast furnaces are now being operated under high top pressure to the tune of 2-0-2.5 kg/cm? gauge. Since the second world war, in order to maintain the increasing rate of production, good quality coking coal has become scarce and there- fore a costly commodity in relation to its consumption. Since coke serves two functions viz. a heat producer and a reducing agent, attempts are underway to substitute at least a part of the coke requirement by other available fuels. Various liquid, gaseous and fluidised fuels have been successfully injected through the tuyeres to substitute as much of the coke requirement as is possible without impairing in any way the pro- Scanned with CamScanner10 MODERN IRON MAKING duction rate. All these attempts along with other innovations and modi- fications in furnace design and operation have borne fruits and the coke rate has been brought down to an average of 0-7 t/t of pig iron produced with lowest value of 0-4—0-5 t/t in some of the most modern Japanese furnaces. It may be of interest to recall here that the coke consumption was nearly 2-5—3-0 t/t of iron production nearly a century ago and about 0-9-1-1 t/t of iron around 1950. The present low coke rate value therefore is in itself a substantial single achievement in the development of the blast furnace technology. 15. Alternative Methods of Iron Production ! Coking coal is a valuable and scarce commodity on which smelt- ing of iron ore in a blast furnace inescapably depends. The availability of the right type of coking coal is the chief obstacle for installation of the economic size of blast.furnace which are becoming bigger and big- ger. Attempts have therefore been made to establish alternative proc- esses of ironmaking bypassing the traditional route of blast furnace: These methods fall in three different categories : ‘Use of an electric arc furnace to minimise the requirement of coke which is then needed mainly as a reduci ent and not ag a fuel. obs shaft furnace such that poorer quality coke or even c could be used. roduction of spong iron using gaseous or cheap and abun- dantly available solid reductants. The Tysland-Hole electric furnace for iron ore smelting was introduced in.early 1930's in the Scandinayian countries where cheap electric power was available and no coking coal reserves were present. This led to the development of the modern submerged electric arc fur- nace and which is commonly used. now for smelting of iron ores. The low shaft furnace was developed during the second world war in Germany and was extensively used. Although it continues to be used in Germany it has not found much applicablity elsewhere. - A number of different techniques for direct reduction of iron ore have been developed over the last one hundred years since this idea was first put forth in 1873 in England. The Wiberg and the Hoganas processes were successful in Sweden solely due to the peculiar local conditions. The first viable direct reduction operation that attracted widespread interest was the HyL plant established in Mexio in 1954. Several other processes employing either a vertical shaft or an inclined rotating kiln have since been developed for the production of sponge Scanned with CamScannerIRON MAKING—AISTORICAL di iron. In all these processes the iron ore is reduced in solid state thereby producing a honeycomb type porous structure commonly known as sponge iron or pre-reduced iron or directly réduced iron or in short DR iron. The processes for the production of these are often called as DR processes. The technology has now reached a level where direct reduction and electric are furnace steelmaking complex could very well compete with the traditional established route of blast furnace and oxygen steelmaking under certain conditions and in this respect the future of this technology appears to be bright. 16. History of Ironmaking in India From the pre-historic times the tradition ofiron and steelmaking continued uniterrupted until the last century in India. The swords, the daggers and such other articles belonging to the various periods of his- tory bear testimony to the skill of iron workers in India. The tradi- tional ironmaking throughout the ages more or less consisted of pro- ducing the pasty and malleable iron bloom which was later worked to produce wrought iron and therefrom the steel by the process now called cementation. Molten iron was not obtained until the end of the previ- ous century. The first recorded effort for producing molten iron in modern times is that of Motte and Farquhar in 1779 in Birbhum. They were unsuc- cessful. The credit of establishing first iron works go to Josiah Marshall Heath, a civil servant in East India Co. around 1830. He brought in knowhow as well as workmen from England and constructed the fur- maces at Porto Novo on the south coast of Madras. These were charcoal furnaces and used sea shell as flux. It is a fact that his blowing engines were bullock-driven. He produced excellent quality of iron but at pro- hibitive cost. It was therefore closed in 1854. Many such attempts were made but proved abortive for they relied on charcoal as a fuel and they also lacked in technical knowhow. The ruins of later attempts in Chota Nagpur still stand today as monuments of their misguided efforts. The pioneering efforts to make iron using coke led to the establishement of Bengal Iron Works at Kulti in 1870. The blast fur- paces were commissioned in 1875. The charge was ore and coke made rom Jharia coals.-The furnace individually had a capacity of 20 t/day. It was a open top furnace and the iron produced had an average compo- Sition as follows : C-2.84%, Mn-0.97%, Si-1-13%, P-0:36% and S—0-12%. Scanned with CamScanner12 MODERN [RON MAKING This establishment suffered many reverses and the undertaking passed successively into the hands of Bengal Iron and Steel Co. and then in the hands of the Indian Iron and Steel Co. These efforts however inspired Jamshedji Tata whose efforts, against many odds, finally culminated in the establishment of an inte- erated steel plant in the town now named after him. This is the Tata Iron and Steel Co. (TISCO for short), Jamshedpur, established in 1908 and it started production “Phe Indian Iron and Steel Co. was started in 1918 at Hirapur near Assansol for the production of pig iron aloné-In-1936%t acquired the Bengal Iron and Steel Co. and in 1953 both were amalgamated into an integrated steel plant now known as the Indian Iron and Steel Co. (ISCO for short) at Burnpur. In 1974 it was taken over by the then Hindustan Steel Ltd., a Government of India undertaking. Mysore Iron and Steel works at Bhadravati (Karnataka) now named as the Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Ltd. (VISL for short) was started in 1918 with a small charcoal blast furnace of 60 Uday capacity t& produce 20,000 t cf pig iron per annum. The capacity was later on increased to 100 t/day. In 1936 it was converted into an integrated steel plant. In 1952 one electric arc furnace of 100 t/day capcity was installed for pigiron production and later on two more furnaces of each 200 Uday capacity were added to it. The charcoal blast furnace was dismantled finally to make way for electric smelting only. Real development in iron and steel production began with the onset of Second Five Year Plan by the Government of India emphasis- ing the need to rapidly industrialise the country for its onward march towards progress. Steel production for next few five year plans were worked out. The then existing steel plants were asked to expand as follows : Steel Plant Existing Expansion to Capacity, Mt Me TISCO 1-00 2.00 1IScO 0.35 1-00 Vist 0-06 0-15 Since it was not possible to invest large sums required for set- ting up of steel plants on private level, Government of India set up ‘Hindusthan Steel Pvt. Lid.' wholly owned by the Government to in- stall new steel plants. The Five Year Plans had envisaged to set up three stec! plants initially at Rourkela. Bhilai and Durgrapur and later at Bokaro, Vishakhapatanam, Hospet and Salem. Accordingly in the Scanned with CamScannerIRON MAKING—HISTORICAL 13 Second Plan, during 1955-60 period steel plants were set up as follows : Initial Expanded Present Steel Plant Collaborators Capacity capacity Me Mt Mt Rourkela (RSP) German 10 1-8 1-8 Bhilai (BSP) Russian 1-0 26 40 Durgapur (DSP) _ British 1-0 1-6 18 (Added in Fourth Five Year Plan) Bokaro (BSL) Russian 1-7 4-0 4-0 (Added in Sixth Five Year Plan) Bokaro Plant was to be set up in 1960-65 but could not be commenced because of shortage of finance and it was set up in 1965-70 and it started production in 1973. Tm the 1060's the name of Hindusthan Steel was changed to ‘Hindusthan Steel Ltd.’ In the early 1970's the Government of India set up a central agency, a holding company, called ‘Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL for short) to control, supervise, develop the iron and steel industry and all its related activities in order to make India more self reliant. The above metioned steel plants came under its direct supervision. . From mid 1980's Government policies changed towards liberali- sation rather than central control. Accordingly the Vishakhapatanam Steel Plant was set up under an independent authority as Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (Vizag) Ltd. Similarly sponge iron making plants were allowed to be set up in private sector and soon integrated steel plants based on sponge iron were set up in private sector. The beginning of 1990's witnessed total decontrol of steel pro- duction and accordingly several integrated steel plants were either set up or are being set up presently in private sector. These include both, blast furnace based as well as sponge iron based plants. The important ones include Tata Steel's and L and T's plants at Gopalpur, MESCo at Daitary (iron production has already commenced), Mid East, Malvika Steels, Usha Ispat, Neelanchal Ispat, Rajinder Steels, and so on. Besides the three electric sub-merged arc furnaces for ironmaking at VISL, one electric furnace was commissioned in the private sector at Sandur, Bellary District of Karnataka for the production of merchant iron only. The biggest submerged arc furnace for iron production was set up in public sector in Maharashtra at Chandrapur with 33 MVA Scanned with CamScannerad MODERN IRON MAKING rating to produce 200 t of iron per day in the late 1970's. It has however been switched over to ferro-manganese production. Three small shaft furnaces, resembling a blast furnace, produce iron at Barbil in Orissa. It is run by the Kalinga Iron Works Ltd. in private sector. These are not truely low shaft furnaces in the usual sense of the term. They use nut size coke which is screened off before charging coke in a normal blast furnace at the integrated steel plants. By employing a shorter shaft this size coke is adequate for smelting iron ore. The economics of this process can be debated for its universal application, since this is an exceptional instance of success due to the peculiar local conditions. A nearly similar small blast furnace (SBF) has also commenced iron production near Raipur. ‘These small merchant iron plants have B.F. with useful volume below 250 m® and produce 1-5—2-0 t/m%/day with 650-900 kg of coke consumption per tonne hot metal. They may use imported coke, bee- hive coke and nut size coke from nearby integrated plants. The net shortfall in pig iron in the local market might keep these small blast furnaces going for the time being. - During the Second Plan period the investment level for steel plant installation was about 150 crores of rupees for a one million tonne plant. The present level is about 7500 crores of rupees for a three million tonne plant. The gestation period is around five years. As compared to this the MBF's require nearly 130-150 Crores of rupees for a merchant iron producing unit and may take a year or so to install and start pro- duction. L-7.: Conclusions ‘ The blast furnace has now become synoymous with extraction of iron, although it is also used for the extraction of metals like lead, copper, etc. The modern blast furnace process is the consummation of accumulated experience and developments over several centuries, if not millenia. The dominant role of blast furnace in the production of iron shall be obvious from the share of different processes in the global output as under : : Years 1985 1995 2000 Blast furnace..... 98% = 90% B5% DRI processes. 1-5% = 10% = 15% Electric smelting ... 0-5% 0-3% 0-3% Other processes— negligible * In India the DRI process contribution in iron production may be around 15-20% and is on the increase. Scanned with CamScanner“Modern Blast Furnace Plant and Process _ > Modern blast furnace plant consists of the following important sections :_-* , wi Blast furnace proper -2-~ Hot blast supply equipments _3-~ Gas cleaning system and gas storage aw material storage and handling S-—Liquid products disposal _6.-Process control equipments. The schematic arrangement of the various sections in a modern blast furnace plant is shown in Fig. 2-1. A typical lay-out of the blast furnace plant is shown in Fig. 2-2. - BLEEDER ane lS : ocus ore erivse 4 sive fe ey Ve # as Bier He |e Ws = {2 70 cas RAW MATERIAL ale (Lg gl 2/7 ROLDER 3 - 5 To onER a 132 eS esp ‘STOVES 2 ies 8 3 2: : __ (Fronse 5] 0 PILLARS j BLOWERS FOUNDATION =] SLAG SIDE > ANE oe < : Fig. 2-1. Schematic arrangement for various sections of a blast furnace plant. Scanned with CamScanner16 MODERN IRON MAKING 2-1. Modern Balst Furance A modern blast furnace is nearly a 30 m (about 100 feet)_tall welded plate construction with a circular cross section of varying sizes at different levels. The cross-sectional area increases from the top or throat downwards, a maximum being at the bosh level (mantle) and it decreases thereefter. The structure essentially consists of the founda- tion, the hearth, the bosh, the mantle and columns, the stack, the raw material hauling and charging facilities and the top as shown in Fig. 2-1. A typical set of dimensions of a furnace producing 2000 t of pig iron per day and with an effective inner volume in the range of around 2000 m8 is shown below : Hearth dia Bosh dia Hearth height 8-9 m (26-28 ft) 9-10 m (28-30 ft) 3-3-5 m ( 10-12 ft) S—4 m (10-14 ft) 5-5-6-5 m (19-22 ft) 18-20 m (60-65 ft)] Bosh height Stcokline dia (throat). Strack height Total overall Useful height Working height (tuyere line to throat) 30-32 m (=100 ft) 21-24 m (70-80 ft) 13-1600 m3 (4565000 £t3) one in twelve. Total useful volume Strack batter 2-1-1. Furnace Details Foundations. It is a massive steel reinforced concrete mass partially embedded below the ground level. It should be sufficiently strong to stand the loaded furnace weight, which may be as much as 10,000 t for a 2000 t/day furnace. It may be about 15 m in dia and 6-8 m thick upon which is placed the furnace bottom a consisting. of about 4-5 m thick of fire bricks. Hearth. It is a receptacle to collect the liquid slag and metal and is also referred to'as a crucible. The old practice of using fire bricks for hearth construction is almost universally replaced by carbon blocks. Water cooled copper or steel plates are laid in the side walls to portect the lining. The carbon wall may be more than a meter of uniform thickness or a stadium-type construction. In_the hearth wall are located a tap hole for iron, 12-15 cm in dia and about 0-3-0:6'm abo Scanned with CamScanner17 ‘quod eoeuny 48e]q uxapou v yo mnodey 2g “Ag NIV SYD NVINI SY3MOL ONY SdWnd UaLva. SNI8-"3NI1-HOIH QU¥A 3Y0 MODERN BLAST FURNACE PLANT AND PROCESS Scanned with CamScanner18 - MODERN IRON MAKING the hearth bottom level, and a slag notch 1-2-1-6 m above the iron tap hole level, but staggered through a right angle in the horizontal plane. These holes are closed with clay when not in use and are opened for tapping slag and metal as and when necessary. At the top level of the hearth are located tuyeres uniformly distributed over the entire cross- section. Bosh. The top of the bosh has the maximum dia of the furnace and it is the zone of intense heat. It is a stadium-type (bricks stacked cut) construction with steel reinforcement. Water cooled copper or steel plates are inserted at regular intervals in the furnace lining in this zone to effect protection against high témiperature. The intensive cool- ing of a thin walled bosh forms a layer of solidified Slag mixed graphite on the lining which in reality protects the brickwork from molten (métal) and slag. Mantle and Columns. The furnace structure above the bosh level is supported_on a heavily braced steel ring encircling the furnace at the top of the bosh. This is called the mantle which is supported by uniformly spaced upright heavy columns, which are firmly anchored in the concrete foundation. at the bottom. Stack. It is a frustum of a huge cone mounted on the mantle and extends to the top of the furnace. The furnace top, that is the bell, the charging arrangement, the gas off-takes, etc. are mounted on top of the stack. The stack is welded steel plate construction lined from in- side to a thickness of about a meter of hard firebricks. Flat water cooled plates are inserted in the lower part of the stack lining. The top m height, which is the stockline, is protected from abrasion Be oP roe the falling charge by providing armour plates on the inner sufrace of the lining. s ‘Tuyere and Bustle Pipe. Immediately above the hearth are located the tuyeres through which hot air blast is -blown for fuel com- bustion see Fig. 11-10. The number of tyeres vary with the size of the furnace.. Usually it is any even number between 10—20 and are uni- formly spaced all over the periphery. Air from hot blast stoves is supplied to a huge circular pipe encir- cling the furnace at the bosh level., This is called the bustle pipe. The ndividual tuyeres are connected to the bustle pipe which, by. virtue of its enormous size, equalises the pressure of the blast at all the tuyeres. [tis in fact its very purpose. Bell and Hopper. A bell and hopper or the cup and cone arrangement, as is called, is commonly used on blast furnaces for charg- ing the solid charge see Fig. 5-5. Inspite.uf developments of newer Scanned with CamScannerMODERN BLAST FURNACE PLANT AND PROCESS: 19 designs the two bell arrangement still -continues to be in use even now for charging on the existing furnaces. For the new blast furances the bell-less charging system is being preferred. The double bell arrange- ment ensures that charging continues without the exhaust gas leaking out of the furnace. Furnaces provided with high top pressure have ne- cessitated introduction of several complex seals in the charging arrange- ment. Off-takes. There are four exhaust pipes which are connected to the furnace top evenly at four points. These rise vertigally up above the furnace top and then join to a bigger single pipe known as the downcomer ‘which delivers the gas to the gas cleaning system i.e. dust catcher. 2-2. Hot Blast Stove Air blast is preheated to a temperature of 700—=1300°C in Cowper regenerator stoves. A set of three or four regenerators is provided for each furnace. The stove is about 6—9 m in dia and 3035 m in height. Special thin walled bricks are used to construct the checker work in the stove. During working one stove is ‘on-blast’, heating it, while the remaining two or three are ‘on-gas that is getting themselves heated” by Burning the cleaned blast furnace gas. The eaflier stove had nearly 5000 m2 as the checker surface area for heat exchange but the modern one may have about five times this much. The thermal officiency of such a stove is around 80—90%. Several valves are provided on the “Stove assembly té carry out the changeover from gas to air and vice versa smoothly. + Steam driven centrifugal blowers are generally employed to supply blast at a uniform rate to the furnace. These are located in the blower house near the furnace. 2.2. Gas Cleaning. \ ‘The blast furnace gas is cleaned thoroughly before being used as a fuel. The downcomer opens up in a dust catcher where coarse parti- cles contained in the gas settle down by virtue of the change in their direction of flow. The coarse cleaned gas then passes through wet or dry scrubbers and electrastatic precipitators. Nearly 25% of the gas obtained from the furnace is consumed in the stove for producing hot preheated blast. The remaining nearly 75% of the gas is consumed eleswhere inthe plant. This is known as BF gas. A gas holder may be provided to store the surplus gas. 2-4. Raw Materials Storage and Handling ‘To produce one tonne of pig iron nearly three tonnes of solid charge materials are charged in the furnace. It means that the furnace pr Scanned with CamScanner\ 20 2 MODERN IRON MAKING ducing 2000 t of pig iron per day would need nearly 6000 t of solid charge-materials per day. The successful operation of such a furnace therefore is firstly a function of regular supply of these raw materials to the furnace on sucha large scale. A sufficiently large and readily available reserve stock of these raw materials at the furnace site is essential to avoid any interruption in the production. Equally large storage facilities in the form of ore yard and storage bins are therefore always provided in a blast furnace plant for these materials. Facilities for unloading, blending, etc. particularly in the plants located on water fronts and dependent on imported ores, are also provided. Efficient charging and accurate weighing facilities are a must in any modern plant to achieve smooth operation. 2.5, Liquid Products Disposal Three different products are generated while smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. The gas comes out of the furnace from top: and is. processed in the gas cleaning plant for producing clean BF gas as a fuel for reuse. Since the iron ore contains. some impurity oxides like silica, alumina, calcia, magnesia, ‘etc., and along'with the ash arising out of the coke, it produces a molten oxide liquid, with or without the help of a flux like limestone and which flows out of-the furnace as thin liquid called slag. Being lighter than metal it floats above the metal layer in the hearth. Iron produced after reduction of iron ore get saturated with carbon, and may be containing some ether impurities, collects at the bottom of the hearth from where it is tapped periodically. Inshort the slag and the metal are the two-liquid products that are to be removed from the furnace periodically. 3 ae A sufficiently large, raised platform is provided infront of the furnace at a level just below that of the metal tap hole. Firebrick chan- nels are constructed in this platform to allow liquid metal and slag separately to flow into the respective ladles, moving on bogies on rails. A skimmer arrangement separates slag from the metal and diverts it to slag side. An overhead crane is provided on this platform for mainte- nance. This is called the cast-house. These liquid products-are disposed as under. The slag is sent to slag dumps as a waste product. In ‘some plants it is granulated for its subsequent use as cement or for construction purposes. The pig iron may either be : 1: Cast in pig beds 2. Cast'in pig casting machine 3. Sent to steelmaking shop in hot metal transfer ladles. Scanned with CamScanner‘MODERN BLAST FURNACE PLANT AND PROCESS 21 Pig iron in its classical sense is no more produced and hence sand bed casting in the cast house is only of historical importance. The pig casting machine may be located near the blast furnace or little away from it. It may therefore form a part of the BF plant or a separate section. Most of the pig iron these days is converted into steel in an integrated steel plant. The molten metal from the BF is therefore sent to the steelmaking shop in hot metal transfer ladles. The foundry grade iron, if produced, is sent to the pig casting machine for producing pigs. 2-6. Blast Furnace Operation and Control A blast furnace once started in expected to run for not less than five years before it is due for complete relining and major repairs. Dur- ing the campaign charge materials are regularly put in the furnace from the top and the liquid metal and slag are tapped from the bottom periodically. The charge materials are drawn out from the storage bins in required amounts and in desired sequence and are weighted as accu- rately as is feasible without impairing the rate of feed. The weighed materials are put in the charging skips which raise them to the furnace top and discharge them onthe bell. The ore, coke and limestone are never premixed. On the contrary, these are charged separately, one skipful at a time, and depending upon the requirements that many skips of the required material are charged. The blast furnace operation is controlled from the top by trying to distribute the solid charge more uniformly in the furnace. It is simultaneously controlled from the bottom by the temperature and driv- ing rate (rate of blast feed) of the blast. In order to exercise this control a series of instruments are provided at various levels in the blast furnace complex to measure and control various parameters. Comput- ers are provided in order. to do this job more efficiently. 2-7.-. Essentials of the Blast Furnace Process In the blast furnace solid charge materials like iron ore (or agglomerated ore), coke and limestone are charged in the vertical shaft of the furnace at the top and hot air blast is blown through tuyeres located at the bottom level. The oxygen from the preheated blast com- bines with the carbon of coke and generates heat and carbon monoxide. The gas phase containing mainly nitrogen and carbon monoxide as- cend upwards through the charge which reacts with and extracts heat from the gas phase, Eventually the charge melts and metal and slag thus produced get stratified and are separated to obtain the metal. Fundamentally therefore the blast furnace is a -counter-current reactor.- Scanned with CamScanner22 {MODERN IRON MAKING ‘The main chemical reactions are the\rcduction of iron oxide to iron and the burning of coke. The iron oxide may get reduced as - 2(Fe20, )+3{CO}=3{COg}+4(Fe) - (2-1) ( FegO3 )+3{C} =3{CO}+2( Fe) ++(2-2) the actual mechanism shall be discussed later. Since the iron oxide is reduced directly by carbon in Eq. (2-2) it has traditionally been referred to as ‘direct reduction’ of iron oxide. The CO generated by burn- ing of the fuel at the tuyeres or by direct reduction of iron oxide as in Eq. (2-2) reduces iron oxide also as in Eq. (2-1) which is referred to as ‘indirect reduction’. The CO required for indirect reduction is essen- tially generated at the-tuyer level where carbon of coke burns as 2(C) + {Oz} =2 {CO} --(2-3) As the gases rise and carry out the reduction the COz content of the gas increases and a reaction of the type {CO,}+(C)=2{CO} (2-4) may take place thereby regenerating the reducing gas. This is known as ‘solution loss reaction’. ~ Limestone and dolomite, if added as a flux in the charge get calcined as : ; . (CaCOz.) > (CaO ) + {COo} _-(2-5) (MgCOs3 )—> (MgO )+{COz} 2-6) in'the temperature zone of 800—1000°C. The resulting basic oxides com- bine with the ganguc oxides to form the-slag. Reduction of oxides of iron is practically over while it is in‘solid state. This reduced iron shall be impure because of associated gangue constituents of the ore. Separation of iron from the associated gangue ‘can only be brought about by melting the whole charge. As the charge descends in the furnace its temperature is increased and finally it is melted in the bosh region. Two liquid phases form as a result of melt- ing, one the iron phase and the.other molten oxides called ‘slag’. Those oxides which are not reduced, in spite of melting, join the slag phase and those which are reduced to elemental state join the metal phase. The slag thus contains mainly silica, alumina, alkali-alkaline earth oxides, ete>with some minor other oxides and sulphides. A part of the SiOz, MnO, P2Os, etc. get reduced and hence the metal is contaminated by Si, P, Mn, 5, etc. The metal also gets saturated with carbon because of its contact with coke inside the furnace. On the whole therefore the iron melt may contain anything upto 8 wt% of the total impurities like Scanned with CamScannerMODERN BLAST FURNACE PLANT AND PROCESS 23 C, Si, Mn, P, S, ete. as the metallic product. The slag may contain mainly SiOz, AlgO3, CaO and other minor oxides and sulphides. Stratification of metal and slag is best achieved if the slag is thin, that is of low viscocity. Addition of flux in the charge helps, to a large extent, in achiev- ing the correct nature of the slag. The gas composition and the temperature vary smoothly over the vertical as well as the horizontal corss section of the furnace. The chemical processes are therefore continuous from bottom to top and throughout the whole volume of the furnace. The furnace, however, can conveniently be divided into four main zones with respect to the physical processes occurring in the furnace. 2-7-1. Stack or Shaft This extends from the stockline down to the mantle level and in which the burden is completely solid. The charge gets heated from 200°C al the stockline level to nearly 1100—1200°C by the time it descends to the bottom of the stack. In order to ensure free fall of the charge mate- rial, since it expends progressively with progressive rise in tempera- ture, the. cross section of the furnace is uniformly increased to almost double the size from stockline to the mantle level. ‘This furnace batter is generally one in twelve but the actual value essentially depends on the thermophysical properties of the charge. Much of the iron oxide reduction occurs in the stack.The success of blast furnace process there- fore depends on the efficiency with which the countercurrent gas-solid interaction is brought about in the stack. Tt is this requirement that has led to the developments in burden preparation like sintering, pelletisation, ore preparation, etc. the agglomeration plant may there- fore form an auxilliary to the blast furnace plant. 2-7-2. Bosh The charge materials begin to soften and fuse as they come down into the bottom of the stack. The next lower zone is called bosh in which melting of the burden, except that of coke, takes place. The gangue and flux combine to form the slag.‘The furnace walls in this region are either parallel to some extent and then.taper down or are entirely ta- pering down to reduce the sectional area by about 20-25% to acconimo- date the resultant decrease in the apparent volume of the charge. The burden permeability in this region is mainly maintained because of the Presence of solid coke. This therefore dictates that coke of adequate strength and size should only be used to achieve this end for efficient operation. Any degradation of coke, leading to decreased permeability in the bosh region is bound to affect the blast furnace operation ad- versely. . 2-7-3. Tuyere or Combustion Zone By the time the charge descends down into the area near the Scanned with CamScanner24 MODERN 1RON “MAKING tuyeres, except the column of coke, the entire charge is molten. The oxygen of the blast burns coke to CO and a number of combustion zones, one in front of each tuyere, exists in the tuyers zone. There exists a ‘runway’ or ‘race-way’ in front of each tuyere and through which the flame runs and the gas-flow smoothly expands over the entire cross- section of the furnace. The raceway is first horizontal and then smoothly changes its direction to vertical while expanding over the entire cross- section of the furnace. : 2-7-4. Hearth Although most of the coke burns at the tuyere level a certain fraction is believed to descend even into the hearth where it dissolves in the metal to its near saturation. The entire charge is molten and tends to stratify into slag and metal layers in the hearth from where these are tapped separately. The cross-section of the furnace below tuyere decreases since permeability is no more required, nor can it be maintained in the liquid charge. The walls of the well are parallel and smallest cross-section of the furnace exists in the hearth. 2.8. Efficiency of Blast Furnace - ‘The performance of a blast furnace is asessed essentially in terms of its productivity and coke rate. The higher is the productivity and lower is the coke rate better is the furnace performance. The producti- vity has been described quantitatively in various ways as follows : Basis or Expressed as Best world Where com- ralated to record monly used ‘Tonnes per unit area 60 t/m*/day USA of the hearth per unit time Working volume re- 0-4 m®/t/day USSR quired to produce one tonne of iron per unit time Number of tonnes of 2-5 tm3/day Japan pig iron produced per unit working volume of the furnace -Blast furnace output UK index . P(B +10) BOL. == 72(D-11) _ *°° where P-output t/day B-burden wt, kg/t D-—hearth dia, m Scanned with CamScannerMODERN BLAST FURNACE PLANT AND PROCESS 25 The productivity of a blast furnace mainly depends upon the rate of blast that can be pushed through the furnace. This is called the ‘driv- ing rate’ of a blast furnace. For higher productivity the furnace is driven hard. The more is the blast the more is the oxygen pushed in for conbustion of coke and more is the rate of coke burning and consequently more heat generation. This, will result in more rate of melting of the charge as well as higher rate of stack reduction. Harder driving is possible only if the charge is permeable inside the furnace. Permeability can be improved by preparing the charge burden, é.c.. malx- ing it more suitable, and obtaining better distribution inside the fur- nace so that the overall burden permeability is better. . The furnace is driven hard, that is maximum volume of blast is blown in the furnace.The charge quality that maintains higher perme- ability in the furnace is therefore considered better for higher-furnace productivity. The blast furnace can be ran more efficiently by charging himpy charge of close size range and the lumps should be such that they main- tain maximum possible bulk pormeability during their descent in the blast furnace. Presently the average productivity of Indian blast furnaces is in the range of 1-0 t/m3/day in old style blast furnaces to 1-5 t/m3/day in modified furnaces to 2-2 t/m®/day in recently installed modern furnaces like the ‘G' furnace of Tata Steel. There are obvious limitations in improving the old furnaces but the.modern furnaces with adequate burden preparation and operational improvements, the performance is comparable with those of the best in the world. __ Similarly the coke rate of old furnaces is in the range of 700-800 kg/thm but that of the modern furnaces is around 500 kg/thm which is comparable with the better ones:in the world. 29. Conclusions _The modern ironmaking plant, besides the blast furnace. com- plex, may have coke ovens, iron ore processing and agglomeration plant, pig casting machine, etc. It should be borne in mind that ironmaking is the primary stage in integrated steel production. It accounts for the bulk of the energy consumed and therefore governs the overall economics of steel produc- tion from iron ores. The modern ironmaking furnace thus continues to improve upon its efficiency of iron production by way of improved mechanical designs and metallurgical processes. Scanned with CamScannerRaw Materials for Tronmaking Iron ore and coke, i.e. coking or metallurgical coal, are the two most important raw materials required for iron production. In the al- ternative methods of iron production a cheaper substitute of coke is used as a fuel depending upon its availability. These will be discussed separately later. The present discussion pertains to blast furnace smelt- ing only. The smelting operation generally requires external flux such as lime to render the gangue associated with the ore and coke ash, which are generally siliceous in nature, fusible at a relatively low tem- peratures so as to separate readily from the molten iron. Hence lime- stone is also required as the next important raw material but in a much less proportion. It is technically essential and otherwise economical to use dolomite along with limestone as a flux. Similarly a small amount of manganese ore is also required to carry out iron smelting more effi- ciently. The raw materials required for ironmaking are : ) - Iron ore (or its prepared form) Coking coal or coke Limestone Dolomite Manganese ore (or its substitute) Approximate quantities of ore, fuel and flux required for produc- ing one tonne of pig iron under Indian conditions are as-follows = Material Quantity in tonnes — Iron ore (about 60% Fe). 17-18 R Coke.:. 0-8-0-9 Limestone. 04-05 Manganese ore (low grade) about 501 Air. 45_ Scanned with CamScannerRAW MATERIALS FOR IRON MAKING 27 Thus nearly 3 tonnes of solid charge materials and 4 tonnes of air are required to make one tonne of pig iron. This is also Shown in Fig. 31. As against this figure the average solid charge consumption in many of the other countries is close to 2 tonnes only per tonne of iron produc- “tion. The reasons for this are many, but essentially related to the qual- ity of raw materials. The present world production of crude steel is around 600 mil. lion tonnes out of which some 40-45% might be coming from recycled | scrap. The remaining 55-60% is obtained by converting pig iron and DRI produced by smelting of iron ores. If the average. iron content of iron ores is 60% nearly 500 million t of iron ore has to be smelted annu- ally to achieve the present steel out put. The production and utilization of iron ores thus forms an important economic activity the world over. The same is true of metallurgical coals or blends of coals from which the coke is produced. 3-1. Iron Ores® \be naturally occurring materials containing iron are known as minerals of iron. |The mineral deposits from which iron can be extracted economically are referred to as ores Of iToi - INPUTS 2 OUTPUTS WRON GEARING 175% 1 f 3200 m3 TOP Gas BURDEN (60 %Fe) TOP 80 Kg OUST FLUX ost FUEL o-et BLAST 2500 m3 O-6t SLAG 1-O0t HOT METAL 4 Fig. 3-1. Simplified material flow in and out of blast furnace.’ 3-1-1. Minerals of Iron Iron constitutes about 4.6% of the earth's crust and hence it is idely distributed and abundant element in Being a fairly basic metal ion it is not generally found in native state ——E———Ee———eee Scanned with CamScannerRAW MATERIALS FOR IRON MAKING 29 product. Ilmenite is isomorphous with hematite and is generally present in small quantities in most hematite ore bodies whose value is hereby reduced. . TABLE III-1 Characteristics of Iron Minerals Type Class Composition Specific Colour % Fe gravity Iron Native (meteo- Usually alloyed 7-3-7-8 Iron grey ric) : with nickel Magnetite | Black oxide 72 . 49-52 Iron black i FesO4 - - Hematite Red oxide (spe- 70 4:5-5-3 Red to cular iron, 5 blackish kidney. orc) te = Fe203 Brown hematite’ 60 3-4-4-0 2Fe103.3H20. Goethite Brown Variable but more | _4-0-4-4 _ Fe2z03.Hz0° “than 60% Pyrites Iron pyrite 64 485-1 - Fes = 7 or brown- 3 - ish black -Ghalybite Carbonate, spa- 248 _ | .3-7-3-9 Pale yell- Es > those iron or low _ siderite . brownis ee FeCOs ; balek Ilimenite FeOTiOz 4-5-5-0 Black Silicates. ‘These are present in most ore bodies in varying pro- portions. In high grade hematite and magnetite type of deposits their proportion is fairly low but they are one of the major.constituent of the brown hematite deposits. The presence of silicate gives rise to the ‘oolitic’ structure. The oolite is a spherical nodule of 2-3 mm but more com- monly less than 0-5 mm in diameter consisting of concentric and radi- ating crystals. Iron may be present in these crystals or in the matrix. Silicates of iron, if present, do pose problems during beneficiation of the deposit. . 3-1-2. Ore Minerals of Iron ‘Although a large number of iron minerals have been found only a few of them are important for ironmaking. The various iron minerals Scanned with CamScanner30 MODERN IRON MAKING mentioned above do not occur in nature in pure form. It consists essen- tially of mixture, in varying proportions, of iron bearing minerals and other sundry minerals called ‘waste’ or ‘gangue’ which contains essen- tially silica, alumina, lime, and magnesia and which can be presenf.in tial proportions. Iron minerals also contain other elements, ei- ther as constituents of iron bearing minerals themselves or as sepa- rate entities. These are generally present in quantities ranging from the fraction of one percent to a few present. Many of these, when present in quantities greater than specified limits, which are generally low, have a deleterious effect on the quality of metal produced and must be got rid of during the preparation of ore or in the blast furnace or during subsequent steelmaking processes. They are known as ‘impuriti. For an iron mineral to become an iron oré, the cost of its mining transportation and smelting must be such that the cost of the final metal remains competitive with the cost of metal derived from other ores. In other words the iron mineral deposit is called iron ore only if it is possible to produce iron from it economically. Many times the impurities in ores have a value of their own and if they exist in sufficient amount to justify their. recovery the economy of the process is favourably altered due to the recovery of such by-prod- ucts. If the processing can be justified from the point of view of recov- ery of such.impurities, because of their adequate proportion, the ore can no longer by itself be called as an iron ore but it-may be referred to as an ore of that element and iron may be recovered as a by-product. 3-1-3. Classification of Lron Ores Iron an be classified simply in terms of their appearance as: He 0 Magnetite __ Red or reddish black ore Hematite feddish' bla iematite Brown ore Limonite Grey or whitish ore Carbonate Iron ores may also be classified according to the quality of gangue associated with them as: Nature of ore Characteristics of associated gangue Siliceous Predominantly silica Aluminous Largely alumina Argillaceous*. —........... Chiefly clayey matter: Scanned with CamScannerRAW MATERIALS FOR IRON MAKING 31 Calcarious Predominantly lime Bituminous Large amount of bituminous or coaly matter Titaniferous Large amount of ilmenite (FeO. TiO,) C-rhe presence of elements like phosphours, sulphur, arsenic, zine, lead, nickel, vanadium, copper, chromium, titanium, etc. in the ore has a considerable bearing on the operation of ironmaking process and the quality_of the product. These are termed impurities) If the ore is associated with substantial amount of these impurities the ores are often referred to as phosphoric (containing phosphorus), sulphur: (containing sulphur), arsenical (containing arsenic), titaniferous (con taining titanium) etc. An ore may be phosphoric and sulphurous both : it is associated with phosphorus and sulphur both. ron ores may also be conveniently classified according to thei mode of geological origin as follows : Sedimentary. This is the largest_and most important group of ores ocdtirring broadly in four different types. Tone the iron oxide and ite in the entice tree is porous, , fragile and less pure but where sec n_of iron oxide ‘taken and more. , pureNTo the second type belongs the Minnette ores of ‘West_ ern Burope. sedimentary ores of UK, the Alabama ores and the Wabana ores of New Foundland. These are precipita ter around granules, often of foreign matter, Stone of U.Ki The fourth, mainly found in Indi form of powder (purity often more than 60% Fe dust.t op $ = Igneous. It is derived from igneous material of volcanic origin and occurs mainly as magnetite. The Kiruna ores of Sweden is its typi- cal example. The magnitanaya ores are-only modified forms of the Kiruna type ores. Lateritic. It is formed in tropical conditions of alternating dry and wet seasons resulting in leaching away of silica and alkalies from the mother igneous rock, leaving behind mainly iron oxide and alumina. Replacements. The circulating water earlier removed limestone depositing iron carbonate in its place. Subsequent surface weathering has oxidised part of the iron carbonate to, oxide or hydrated oxide. Scanned with CamScanner32 MODERN _IRON MAKING 3-1-4, Structure and Texture of Iron Ores The consitituent minerals in the iron orés are not necessarily distributed at random throughout the ore body. They frequently follow a pattern which has been determined by the geological, metamorphic and geochemical inlfuences which the ore body has undergone. This pattern can have a bearing on the course which ore preparation should follow and on the subsequent behaviour of the ore in the blast furnace. The following principal types can be distinguished : 1. Oolitic ores. Concentric layers or as radiating crystals and iron may be present in these or in the matrix rock. "2. Lateritic ores. These are formed by surface action at the expense of underlying rock rich in iron and consist of intermingled mass of iron hydroxides, alumina hydroxides and other minerals. Their benefication raises particular problems which in many cases have eluded a economic solution. ~ 3. Banded ores. These are characterised by alternate bands usually.a few mm thick but sometimes.upto several cms. In this some bands may have predominance of iron minerals while the other may have predominance of quartz and silicates. The marked success. achieved in the benefication of certain of these deposits has given an impression that all banded ores are easy.to beneficiate. In reality they present a great diversity of types as regards the thickness of their banding, grain size, degree of liberation, con- stituent minerals and the like and each type must be considered strictly on its own merits. Z - 4. Hard massive ores: The consitituents are intergrown into a homogenous mass showing no preferential direction or pattern except occassionaly very slight banding. It is a fine grained material and of- fers high resistance to crushing and abrasion. These are difficult to reduce in the blast furnace. 5. Soft ores. These can be missive but the crystals are more loosely knit together. Some show a banded structure. These are more porous and are liable to produce more fines during handling. Better porosity however can be utilised in furnace if other properties are tol- erable. 6. Powdery Ores. These can not be charged as such in the fur- nace. It must be agglomerated before charging. Being powdery in na- ture concentration operation can be readily’ effected before agglomeration. Scanned with CamScannerRAW MATERIALS FOR IRON MAKING . 33 3-1-5. Types of Iron Ores Maggnetite ores. Magnetite ores can be divided, according to their origin, into three main categories viz. sedimentary-metamorphic, contact-metasometic and magmatic. In sedimentary-metamorphic ores the ore minerals are usually fine-grained and texture may be banded. Ores of this type generally contain martite, hematite, iron carbonates and silicates. The gangue is mostly quartz and sulphur and phosphorus contents are generally low. The examples of this type of ores are the deposits of Lake-Superior in USA and Krivoi-Rog ore fields in USSR. In contact-metasomatic ores the magnetite generally occurs in grains of different sizes and'the amount of sulphides of iron and other metals like copper and zine can be high. A considerable amount of CaO is presnet. with siliceous gangue. The deposits of eastern parts of USA and Western Siberia belong to this category. Ores of magnetic origin differ widely in grain size and composi- tion. The phosphorus content is also generally high. Magnetites are liable to oxidation and hence these ores contain areas of mixures of martite and hydroxides with magnetites. Hematite ores. These are most widely distributed in the world and from which major portion of iron is produced. These are usually of the sedimentary-metamorphic type. In view of the differences in condi- tions of formation of the metamorphic processes the granulometry, struc- ture and the iron content of these ores: very considerably. They include the hard homogeneous fine grained hematite-taconites from Lake Su- perior region of U.S.A., hard quartz banded ores of Sweeden and Lab- rador,.coarse grained ores which are easy to crush and grind and, high grade ores (both soft and hard) containing large inclusions of pure hematite such as in the Mesabi range of U.S.A. and the Krivoi-Rog ore fields in the U.S.S.R. The sulphur and the phosphorus contents of hematite ores are usually low, the gangue mainly consists of silica but alumina can also be appreciable. = Brown hematite ores. The term brown hematite ores is used to convey a variety of ores mostly sedimentary in origin and the mate- rial having moved in solution from its initial point of formation. The main ore minerals in the brown hematite are the various iron hydrox- ides, limonites, hydrogoethites, silicates and siderites. The gangue is generally siliceous but occassionally lime along with high silica con- tent may also be present. In the acid oolitic ores more than 30%. of the total-iron may be present as iron silicates of diverse composition. Scanned with CamScanner34 MODERN IRON MAKING ‘The sulphur content is usually low but high phosphorus contents are frequent and can exceed 1%. It is not unusual to find good amount of manganese associated with this. \ The Kerehenski ores are characterised by the presence of arsenic as an impurity. Althouh there ores are common all over the world these are principally worked in France. Luxemburg, U.K., West Germany, ete. where these account for bulk of the reserves Siderites (Spathic ores). These arScqrbonate type at ore) and constitute a very small proportion of the total world availa yy but in countries like Canada, Austria and West Germany these are ‘or have been of considerable importance. Siderites are prone to oxidation and the ore often contains con- siderable amount of hydroxides. Near the surface these ore bodies are covered by siderite-limonite-hematite cap. Titanomagnetites. The most important of the complex ores are the titanomagnetites.The main ore mineral is magnetite with tita- nium present as ilmenite or as titnomagnetites. Certain of these ores contain vanadium which is recovered from these ores along with iron as a by-product. The composition varies considerably and maycontain 60-70% magnetite and 20-27% ilmenite. Lateritites. These are produced due to surface alterations un- der tropical conditions. The final result is the. formation of iron cap-on hard -ore extending few meters below the surface. Such ores can con- tain 50—60% iron in the form of hydroxides and a high proportion of alumina which has‘not been leached out. These ores many times contain impurities like chromium, nickel, cobalt, etc, in such high proportions that it is worked for their recovery. Laterites are difficult to process and hence. still largely remain unused. ~ 3-1-6. World Deposits of Iron Ores4 The major iron ore producing countries in the world are the U.S.A., U.S.S.R., India, Australia, Brazil, some countries. of Eurape and Africa. ~~ (FSS) the ores mostly worked are rich magnetites and hematites and are found in four major regions viz. the Lake Superior the north-eastern states like New York, New Jersey and Penn- sylvania and Alabama and, western states like Utah, California and Texas. In the Lake Superior region the Mesabi range is the largest and the most productive one whose chemical composition permit the manu- facture of all. the principal grades of foundry and steelmaking irons. Scanned with CamScannerRAW MATERIALS FOR IRON MAKING 35 In general these : sulphur ores containing 50-60% iron, The ex- tremely fine taconii in the western region of Mesabi was largely responsible for the development of the present design and pratice of U.S. blast furnaces. These deposits are easily. are amenable to easy reduétion|In reality however these could be smelted with great difficulity when first introduced. The north eastern deposits are rich magnetites, low in phospho- rus. The sintered concentrates of these ores have 58-68% iron 3-9% silica and about | _JThe Utah deposits are the most impor- tant deposits of western states and are primarily. magnetite and hematite with nearly 53% iron. The ores of Alabama are hard hematite containing high phosphorus and with only 38%, iron. These however are virtually self fluxing and hence useful. The Wabana ores from New Foundland contain 52% iron, 12-14% lime and 0-9% phosphorus. In spite of all these deposits U.S.A. imports a substantial amount of-high grade ores from particularly the South American countries to keep their present level of iron production. The Candian deposits are located principally in Quebec Labra- dé¥ région, Ontario and British Columbia. The Quebec-Labarador de- posits are like the Lake superior deposits. The important deposits in“ Ontario are in Steep-Rock Lake and in British Columbia these are in Vancouver and Texada islands. The principal deposits in U.S.S.R are in the vicinity of Black Sea (the Kerch, Krivoi-Rog and Kursk deposits) and in Ural-Kazakhstan Gnount Magnitnaya and Sverdlovsk deposits). The Kerch peninsula has brown ores and Kursk fields have magnetite ores. The Russian depos- its are quite abundant and rich in their iron content. In‘Australia major deposits are in the Kimberly basin of the cocka- too and Koolan inslands, in mount goldworthy and in the Hammersly iron province of Western Australia. These deposits are in the form of hills and contain 68—69% iron. A considerable portion of these are ex- ported to Japan. The iron ore deposits of U.K. are limy and contain 18-25% iron (Frodingham). It can be easily smelted by blending it with siliceous Northempton ironstone or rich imported ores obtaining a self fhaxing blend. The Spanish iron ores are low in sulphur and phosphorus and rich in iron. Since the gangue is calcarcous, like the U.K. ores, it can be blended with siliceous ores to produce a self fluxing charge for smelting. Scanned with CamScanner36 MODERN IRON MAKING The farnous Bog-Iron-One deposit in Scandinavia is a rich mag- netite containing low phosphorus and sulphur. The ore deposits of Bel- gium, France and Germany are brown hemtites and carbonates. These are generally phosphoric ores and do contain high proportion or iron. These require benefication before their use. The Minnette ores of France contain only 35% iron and occur both as calcarious and siliceous grades. A self fluxing burden can be readily prepared from them by blending: The Brazilian deposits are largely situated in Ginas Gerais and Nato Grosso states. The Minas Gerais ore ranks as one of the largest and the richest iron ore deposit in the world. The ore is mainly hard, massive hematite with 69% iron. The Chilean ores are high grade con- taining 69% iron. A vast amount of Chilean and Brazilian ores are ex- ported rhainly to U.S.A. In spite of the large reserves of iron ores the U.K_.U.S.A., and others have been importing a lot of iron ores from South African and South American states. World data are shown in Table III-2. TABLE UI-2 “World Iron Ore Production in 19955 Name ofthe _ Production in country million t P. R. of China 245 Brazil 175 Australia 142 Russia 13 USA. - 62 India 60 Canada 37 . South Africa’ * 32 Sweden 21 ‘All others only 162 World Total 1004 World total steel ingot production in 1996 was 752 Mt World Iron Ore production in 1996 ~ Fore conversion to steel — 477 Mt For foundries 33 Mt For DR proceses - 33 Mt Total 543 Mt Scanned with CamScannerRAW MATERIALS FOR IRON MAKING 37 3-1-7. Iron deposits in India India ranks 5th in the world in iron ore resources and is 3rd lagest producer and exporter of iron ore in the world, only after Brazil and Australia. India ig also endowed wil lly high grade iron ores of hematite variet), Bihar and Orissa have 43% of the total Indian _iron ore reserves®. Ma; ming regions are in Singhbhum dis- trict of Bihar and Keonjhar, Bolani, Mayurbhanj and Cuttack districts of Orissa. The important mining centres of these regions are Gua, Noamundi, Bolani, Barsua, Barajamda, Tomka, Deiteri and Kiriburu. The ores occur as massive hematite of around 60% iron, blue dust (extermely friable and micaceous hematite powder) with iron content around 65% and weathered ore. In Madhya Pradesh iron ore deposits are located in Bailadila range of Baster district and Dalli and Rajhara hills in Durg district. In Bailadila out of the 14 located deposits only a few have received proper attention. Bailadila ores contain 65% iron. while those of Dalli-Rajhara 55-66% iron. In Mysore the deposits are in Bababudhan hills in Chikmanglure district, in sunder hills in Bellari-Hospet districts, in Tamkur, in Chitaldurg and in Shimoga districts. The Kemmangundi deposits con- tain 57-62% iron. In Sandur hills the deposits are located around Donamalai, Devdari, Kumarswami, Kammadheruvu, Ramandurg and Timmappangudi ranges. Of these the donamalai deposits have received considerable attention and have iron content around 64%. The Shimoga, Chitalaurg and Tumkur deposits contains 55-65% iron. In Maharashtra, deposits are located in parts of Ratnagiri and Chandrapur districts. theChandrapur deposits are being mined. Goa deposits are mainly as blue dust containing 59-61% iron. These are readily amenable to pelletization and the ore and pellets are exported to Japan. In Andhra Pradesh rich hematite deposits have been found in Anantapur. Warangal Karnool, Adilabad, Nizamadbad, and Karimnagar districts. These are yet to be properly exploited. Magnetite is found at various places, as apetite-magnetite in Singhbhum district, as titaniferous and vanadiferous magnetite in Mayarbhanj district. as bounded magnetite-silica in Salem and Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. It is also at: Kundremukh in Karnataka (42% iron) and in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh (83-37% iron). The Kundremukh magnetite ore deposits are being mined and up- graded and the entire lot is exported either in the form of concentrate or pellets. . Scanned with CamScanner38 2 MODERN IRON MAKING ‘The total inferred reserves ofiron ores in India are around 23,000 million tonnes of which nearly 85% is hematite (admixed with geothite), 8% magnetité and the rest around 7%. According to yet another source? out of the total proved deposits of 13,200 million tonnes nearly 10,500 million tonnes are hematite containing more than 55% iron and 2800 million tonnes are magnetites containing more than 30% iron. The over- all situation in respect of availability of iron ores in India is fairly good. In 1979, nearly 45 million tonnes of iron ore, all hematite grade was mined and out of which nearly 25 million tonnes was exported, the balance was consumed practically in indigenous iron production. TABLE I11-3 Indian Iron Ores and their Utilisation® Source of Annual Analysis Yo ore requirement - supply in Mt Silica Alumina 1. Hematite ores 0-63 1-87 Noamundi and Joda 1-71 2-97 Bolani 3-0-6-0 | 3-0 5-5 Barsua RSP. 21 4-10 Dalli and Rajhara _ BSP 2-0-8-0-— Kiribura and Bolani BSL 2977 Kemmandungi | VISL 2-5 max Bailadila Export 2-0 KGribura ado - 5-0-6-6 Goa do, 39-42 Redi proposed 24 for export 2. Magnetite ores Salem for Salem plant needs up gradation to be exported to Iran under agreement Kundremukh. .. Present iron production is around 66 million tonnes and nearly half is-exported as such or as concentrate or pellets. Now almost ail ores are crushed, washed wet and screened to obtain lumps for direct feed to the blast furnaces in the Indian Steel Plants. As a result nearly Scanned with CamScannerRAW MATERIALS FOR IRON MAKING 39 10% of the ore mined is lost as slimes even after gravity separation of good.grade fines for its subsequent sintering. India today has an installed capacity of about 32 million tonnes of steel ingots and out of which more than 20 million tonnes is to come from conversion of pig iron or sponge, i.e. from nearly 32 million tonnes of 60% grade iron ore. The actual consumption however is-much mess because of steel production falling much short of rated capacity. This is the target now fixed for year 2000. Export target of ore is 50 million tonnes for year 2000. : \ ~._ Table IIl-4 Details of Iron Ore Export from India® Minel Port for Present Expected | Yearly export area export , | vessel vessel _ size port size can accept (i) Barbil Haldia - - ‘Tomka Pradeep 40,000 60,000 Deiteri | dwt dwt Kiriburu Vishakha-- | 100,000 | 200,000 Baliadila patname dwt dwt Barajamda Chikmanglure | Mangiore = 60,000 Tumkur dwt Chitaldur Madras 35,000 73,000 Bellari and dwt dwt Hospet Manglore Goa Marmugua | 18,000 - dwt Kundermukh -| Manglore = 60,000. dwt The details of iron ore deposits, their composition and utlization are shown in Table III-3. Similarly the details of iron ore export are shown in Table III-4. 3-1-8. Valuation of Iron Ores The value of an iron ore deposit depends upon several factors. Simple formulae have been put forward by many workers for the Scanned with CamScanner40 MODERN IRON MAKING ; ; = y - valuation of an iron ore deposit. The factors affecting the value of an iron ore deposit can be conveniently summarised under four categories as under : 1. Richness 2. Location . 3. Composition of the gangue 4. Treatment and preparation needed before smelting Richness means the percentage metallic iron in the ore. The richer the ore the lesser will be the amount required to produce a unit weight of pig iron. For example, in order to produce a tonne of pig iron about one and half tonnes of ore is required in Australia (68% Fe), about two tonnes are required in India (55-60% Fe) and nearly three tonnes are required in U.K. (30-35% Fe). The Fuel and flux required in all these three cases would be considerably different. For richer ores, since the ganuge is less the fuel and flux consumption will be lesser than that for leaner ores wherein gangue is more. The value of an ore is therefore decided not directly by its iron content alone but by its iron content and other, associated minerals together, the rest of the factors remaining the same. The location of an ore, both geographical and geological, is a very important factor in its evaluation. Geological location is related to whether the deposit is underground, as an outcrop or is in the form of a hill. Where the ore can be obtained by quarrying or open cast mining with a shallow overlying burden the cost of obtaining the ore at the ground level railway station is much lower than that involved in un- derground mining which requires expensive excavating machinery. Many important iron ore deposits, for example, some Indian and Aus- tralian deposits, are located as hills and that allows the ore to be ob- tained at the ground level railway station under gravity. The mining operation in this case is also cheap. Geographical location is related to the mode of transport required to bring the mined ore to the smelter and which includes the capital expenditure on installation of railways, harbours, ore carries, ete. . The evalution of an ore needs careful consideration of the size of the ore reserves, its location, possible difficulties in mining the ore and the distance and the mode over which it is to be transported. In open- ing a new mine such capital expenditure is warranted only if the re- serves are of sufficient magnitued to ensure at least ten years opera- tion to amortize the investment made in developing the mine and the necessary transport system. The development of Goa mines in India and the Hammersley mine in Western Australia by the Japanese are typical examples of exploitation of iron ore deposits by a needy cus- tomer from a distant place. Scanned with CamScanner