International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 31 (2021) 1075–1083

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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmst

Mechanism for suspension magnetization roasting of iron ore using

straw-type biomass reductant
Yue Cao, Yongsheng Sun ⇑, Peng Gao, Yuexin Han, Yanjun Li
School of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
National-local Joint Engineering Research Center of High-efficient Exploitation Technology for Refractory Iron Ore Resources, Shenyang 110819, China
State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: As an alternative reductant for fossil fuel in the future, straw-type biomass contributes to emission reduc-
Received 5 March 2021 tion and green utilization in the suspension roasting process. In this study, the influences of the roasting
Received in revised form 27 July 2021 time, roasting temperature and dose of straw-type biomass after suspension magnetization roasting
Accepted 27 September 2021
(SMR) and separation were investigated. The optimal conditions were determined to be a roasting time
Available online 7 October 2021
of 7.5 min with a straw-type biomass dose of 20 wt% and a roasting temperature of 800 ℃, in which an
iron grade of 71.07% and recovery of 94.17% were obtained for the iron concentrate. The maximum sat-
Keywords:
uration magnetization under optimal conditions was 35.05 A
m2
g1, and the gaseous regulation of the
Straw-type biomass
Suspension magnetization roasting
biomass revealed that cumulative reducing gas volume was 293.93 mL at the optimal roasting time of
Phase conversation 450 s. The transformation of hematite to magnetite was detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD). During
Gases analyses microstructure evolution, the outer layer consisting of fissures and tiny holes continuously deepened
Microstructure evolution toward the core.
Ó 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
The rapid depletion of high-grade iron ores, as well as the
tremendous demand of iron and steel industries, has given rise
to the urgent need for global attention on the effective utilization
of refractory iron ore [1]. In China, a large reserve of refractory iron
ore lacks the appropriate treatment because of its properties such
as low iron grade, complex composition and fine-grained granular-
ity [2,3]. During the process of suspension magnetization roasting
(SMR), refractory iron ore phases can transform into magnetite,
which is effectively separated by the low-intensity magnetic sepa-
ration methods [4–6]. Because of magnetic differences, excellent
index parameters can be obtained. SMR plays a significant role
not only in treating refractory ore but also in hazardous wastes
such as red mud and hazardous tailings [6,7]. Thus, the industrial-
ization of SMR is growing rapidly and the implementation of sus-
pension magnetization roasting technology should be expected in
the future [8,9].
Although SMR has been widely adopted in the field of treating
iron ore, the severe problem of environmental pollution from using
fossil fuel cannot be ignored [10,11]. Biomass, including plant resi-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yongshengsun@mail.neu.edu.cn (Y. Sun).
due and organic fertilizer, can be used as a green and renewable
reductant after it is processed to a fine powder or other forms
[12]. However, it should be pointed out that the utilization of bio-
mass is difficult and inefficient. For example, the abundant renew-
able energy power was 100.7 TW
h in 2017, and biomass energy
accounted for only 4% of the total energy use in China [13,14]. As
a sustainable and CO2-neutral resource, biomass can meet the
greenhouse gas emission limits for the iron-making industry,
whose emissions account for 7% of global anthropogenic CO2
[15]. Additionally, biomass could replace traditional fossil fuels
and lessen the emissions of SOX and NOX formation in the future
[16–19]. Because biomass includes a substantial variety of low cost
and renewable resources, discussing the application of biomass is
crucial [20,21]. Recently, the application of biomass has been
investigated and elucidated by many researchers. For example,
biomass used as a reductant has a significant effect on magnetized
roasting [22]. The optimal magnetic separation indexes of roasted
products are obtained in the applications of waste coconut shells
(CS), pine sawdust or other plant residues [23–25]. Subsequently,
Rath et al. studied the reduction roasting process of iron ore mines
using cow dung as the reductant, in this study, the grade and
recovery were 64% and 66%, respectively [26]. Studies on the
microscopic scale have focused on, alkali lignin, a component of
the biomass; it has been shown that roasting lignin with limonite

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2021.09.008
2095-2686/Ó 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Y. Cao, Y. Sun, P. Gao et al.
ore increases the saturation magnetization value of iron oxides
[27]. Furthermore, direct reduction and co-pyrolysis are the new
ideas for biomass utilization [28–31]. He et al. and Zhao et al. used
the catalytic co-pyrolysis of biomass to study optimal indexes,
with the purpose of improving the yield of desired products such
as tar, hydrocarbon, benzene and toluene [32,33]. Other green
reductants that adhere to the concept of cleaner production are
mentioned. For example, the carbon monoxide reductant released
from the decomposition of siderite (FeCO3), mixed with refractory
hematite has been explored in the SMR process, resulting in the
generation of magnetite [34,35]. Additionally, under an atmo-
sphere of CO-CO2, pyrrhotite (Fe(1-X)S) and troilite (FeS) are used
to obtain iron concentrates and to reduce the element contents
of Sn and S.
In general, the pyrolysis of biomass is somewhat complicated
and it is difficult to determine the gaseous products because of
the close coupling of the multiphase processes and the variable
contents of the biomass [36,37]. The main contents of biomass
are cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, but these three pyrolysis
profiles of biomass are totally different [38,39]. Although they
can produce gaseous reducing products such as CH4, CO and H2,
the gas content and pyrolysis temperature range of biomass are
different [40,41]. Because of the complexity and variability of bio-
mass pyrolysis, and to avoid the interaction between impurity ele-
ments in refractory iron ores and straw-type biomass, pure
hematite was used as a sample to make the reduction mechanism
clearer.
A few studies of gaseous products released from biomass mixed
with pure iron ores have mentioned the SMR process. The aim of
this work is to assess the possibility of using biomass as a reduc-
tant for SMR, and the experimental indexes of hematite mixed with
straw-type biomass are calculated under different conditions after
magnetic separation. According to the results of the phase transfor-
mation and microstructure evolution of hematite, hematite
changes to magnetite in a stepwise manner, indicating the feasibil-
ity of straw-type biomass as a reductant under suitable experi-
ments. A vibrating sample magnetometer is used to detect the
magnetic properties of the roasted samples. Furthermore, in addi-
tion to gas product analysis, the regulations of main reducing gases
are revealed during the SMR process.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Straw collected from Liaoning Province, China, was prepared as
a reductant in the SMR process. Prior to all experiments, the straw-
type biomass was cut into 2–3 cm pieces and crushed by a pulver-
izer to be a powder-like particle size of 0.9 cm. All straw-type bio-
mass samples were dried for 10 h at 80 °C. The results of
preliminary, elemental and constituent analysis are shown in
Table 1. The hematite obtained from Liaoning Province, China con-
tained TFe 67.70%, FeO 0.53%, SiO2 1.16%, Al2O3 0.47%, CaO <0.05%,
MgO 0.11%, P 0.035%, S 0.013%, and LOI 1.94%. It was required that
the particle size distribution of the pure ore sample be such that
Table 1
Preliminary, elemental, and constituent analysis of the straw-type biomass (%).
Preliminary analysis Elemental analysis
Mad 6.26 Carbon
Vad 73.81 Hydrogen
Aad 3.58 Nitrogen
FCad 16.35 Oxygen*
– – Sulfur
ad
Notes: : based on ADB (air dried basis); Oxygen*: by difference.
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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 31 (2021) 1075–1083
70% of the material passed 200 mesh (0.074 mm). The sample of
iron ore characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was
hematite. The result of phase analysis is shown in Table 2.
2.2. Methods
The experimental system is illustrated in Fig. 1. The roasting
system included a gas supply device, a gas flow controller, a tem-
perature controller, and an online gas composition analyzer. For
the magnetization experiment, the hematite and straw-type bio-
mass were mixed naturally in a certain mass ratio, and the mixed
sample was subsequently placed into a furnace tube. N2 was uti-
lized as carrier gases to exhaust air, at a flow rate of 300 mL/min.
The electronic furnace was turned on, and a heating rate of 15 °C
was set. When the roasting furnace reached a specific temperature
under the heating of roasting device, the furnace tube was quickly
put into it. The ranges of roasting temperature, roasting time and
biomass dose were 650–900 °C, 2.5–15.0 min, and 10%–35%,
respectively. The composition of gaseous products was displayed
in an infrared gas composition analyzer (Gasboard-3100 Wuhan
China), which monitors the SMR process in real-time. The furnace
tube was removed from the suspension roasting system and cooled
to room temperature under a nitrogen atmosphere until the com-
pletion of the roasting process. Afterward, the roasted products
were investigated by XRD analysis (X pertpro, PANalytical B.V.,
Netherlands), scanning electron microscopy (ULTRA PLUS, Zeiss,
Germany & SSX-550, Hitachi, Japan), as well as vibrating sample
magnetometry (JDAW-2000D, YingPu, China).
The roasted products were separated by using a Davis Tube Tes-
ter (RX/CXG50, Tangshan China) in at a magnetic field intensity of
104 kA
m1. Prior to the separation experiment, 8 g of the
nitrogen-cooled samples was milled by a handheld milling
machine (Tree) to ensure that the particles were less than
0.1 mm. Both magnetic concentrates and nonmagnetic tailings
were filtered, dried and weighed after separation. The drying pro-
cess was conducted in an oven at a temperature of 80 °C. The
recovery of iron was used to evaluate the efficiency of the magne-
tization roasting process, which was calculated based on the fol-
lowing equation:
b  ða  hÞ
e¼  100% ð1Þ
a  ðb  hÞ
where a, b, h are the iron grades of the feedstock, magnetic concen-
trates and tailings, respectively; and e the recovery of the iron
concentrate.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Thermodynamic basis of biomass pyrolysis and suspension
magnetization roasting
Cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin used to generate reducing
gases such as H2 and CO are three main components of the
straw-type biomass used in the SMR process. However, in addition
to the general formula of cellulose, a lack of regularity between the
Biomass constituent
42.56 Cellulose 38.67
5.60 Hemicellulose 17.06
0.44 Lignin 5.02
41.44 Others 39.25
0.12 – –
Y. Cao, Y. Sun, P. Gao et al. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 31 (2021) 1075–1083

Table 2
Phase compositions of iron in the hematite ore sample (%).

Compositions Fe in carbonate Fe in magnetite Fe in hematite Fe in sulfide Fe in silicate TFe

Mass fraction 0.07 2.13 64.81 0.18 0.85 67.70
Distribution 0.10 3.15 95.73 0.27 1.26 100.00

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of suspension roasting experiment system.

repeating units in the structures of hemicelluloses and lignin
makes it difficult to describe by a specific general formula. The
molecular formulas of the three components can only be deter-
mined by elemental analysis (Table 1), giving: C3.55H5.60O2.59 for
straw-type biomass. Therefore, the pyrolysis reactions of straw-
type biomass under an N2 atmosphere described by Eqs. (2)–(5)
are shown in Table 3.
The gaseous products (H2, CO, CH4) generated from straw-type
biomass are utilized in the SMR experiments as reducing agents.
The top oxide of iron is Fe2O3, and the main experimental reduc-
tion process is Fe2O3-Fe3O4. However, the transformation of
Fe3O4-FeO-Fe is possible in the SMR process. The gradual deoxidiz-
ing mechanisms described by Eqs. (6)–(12) are shown in Table 3.
The relationships between temperature and Gibbs free energy
(DG) are displayed in Table 3. Under the experimental conditions,
the DG of Eqs. (7) and (10) is always negative, which reveals that
the transformation from hematite to magnetite occurs sponta-
neously. Higher temperatures are beneficial for the overreduction
shown in Eq. (5). Similarly, it is obvious that overreduction occurs
easily at higher temperatures according to Eq. (8). However, the
action trends have only been evaluated by theoretical thermody-
namic analysis, and thus, further experiments are needed [42].
3.2. Reducing gaseous products analysis
The reducing gaseous products (CO, CH4, H2) released from the
three major components of straw-type biomass were investigated
using a gas composition analyzer to reveal the gaseous regulations
of the mixture in the biomass fast pyrolysis process [43,44]. Fig. 2a
presents the gas flow of gaseous products at a temperature of
800 °C and a biomass dose of 20 wt% using a mixture of hematite
and straw-type biomass. The trends of gas flow in CO and H2 were
similar and they both increased intensely and dropped drastically.
It was obvious that the gas flow rate of CO peaked at 124 s and
rapidly decreased from 1.03 to 0.003 mL/s when the roasting time
was prolonged to 800 s. Similarly, the maximum gas flow value
rate of H2 was 0.85 mL/s at a roasting time of 184 s. By Comparing
the curve trend of CO to that of H2, the early peak appearance of CO

Table 3
Reduction reaction of iron ore and biomass in the SMR process.

Equation number Reactions DG-T (kJ/mol)

(2) pyrolysis –
C3:55 H5:6 O2:59 ! CO2 ðgÞ þ COðgÞ þ H2 OðgÞ þ H2 ðgÞ
(3) C þ CO2 ðgÞ ! 2COðgÞ DG ¼ 29:67  4:23  102 T
(4) C þ H2 OðgÞ ! COðgÞ þ H2 ðgÞ DG ¼ 22:83  3:39  102 T
(5) CH4 þ H2 OðgÞ ! COðgÞ þ 3H2 ðgÞ DG ¼ 35:98  5:84  102 T
(6) 12Fe2 O3 þ CH4 ! 8Fe3 O4 þ CO2 ðgÞ þ 2H2 OðgÞ DG ¼ 3:27  1:38  101 T
(7) 3Fe2 O3 þ COðgÞ ! 2Fe3 O4 þ CO2 ðgÞ DG ¼ 13:31  1:36  102 T
(8) Fe3 O4 þ COðgÞ ! 3FeO þ CO2 ðgÞ DG ¼ 3:78  6:03  103 T
(9) FeO þ COðgÞ ! Fe þ CO2 ðgÞ DG ¼ 2:95 þ 5:13  103 T
(10) 3Fe2 O3 þ H2 ðgÞ ! 2Fe3 O4 þ H2 OðgÞ DG ¼ 6:47  2:20  102 T
(11) Fe3 O4 þ H2 ðgÞ ! 3FeO þ H2 OðgÞ DG ¼ 10:62  1:44  102 T
(12) FeO þ H2 ðgÞ ! Fe þ H2 OðgÞ DG ¼ 3:89  3:25  103 T

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roasting time was extended, the cumulative volume of CO

increased intensely and the maximum value of 168.96 mL would
be finally obtained. Furthermore, there was no release of H2 in
the first 82 s. Because there was no generation after 625 s in the
gas flow curve, the cumulative volume of H2 remained at
172.62 mL for 275 s. The cumulative curve of CH4 increased grad-
ually, which could almost be described as a slow-growing line.
Unique features were observed in the curves of CH4, and cumula-
tive volume was 108.45 mL, which accounted for half of the max-
imum volume of H2. This was because CH4 could react with
hematite and decompose into CO and H2 as the intermediate prod-
ucts of the reducing reaction. The optimal roasting time (7.5 min)
is shown in Fig. 3a, and the cumulative volumes of CO and H2 were
168.96 and 172.63 mL, respectively. However, although both H2
and CO reached their peak volumes, the volume of H2 has a minor
increase than that of CO and it can be estimated that the reducing

Fig. 2. Effects of roasting time on gaseous products.

could be discovered. A suitable explanation of the results is that

the generation of H2 was caused by the rearrangement of lignin,
aromatic bonds, condensation and dehydrogenation reactions at
a high temperature range (160–900 °C) in the fast pyrolysis process
of straw-type biomass. The conversion of the alkyl chains and the
fragmentation of the main biomass contents contributed to the
release of CO in the temperature range of 315–400 °C, resulting
in the early emergence of the CO curve [45,46]. The gaseous prod-
ucts were generated by biomass (Eqs. (1)–(3)), and it was easy to
discover that the reducing curves of gaseous CO and H2 decreased
gradually and reached a balance when the roasting time was varied
from 450 s (7.5 min) to 900 s. The gas flow of CH4 has the same
curve profile as that of CO. It kept increasing until the peak was
reached at 153 s and its maximum was 0.72 mL/s. Finally, the
gas flow of CH4 maintained balance, and its rates which varied
from 0.003 to 0.001 mL/s did not fluctuate. The cleavage of the
_
OCH3 side chain in lignin contributed to the formation of CH4 dur-
ing the pyrolysis process of biomass [47]. The production of reduc-
ing gases was accompanied by the occurrence of iron ore reduction
reactions. Based on the optimal roasting time, it was clear that the
orderly proceeding of the magnetic roasting was attributed to the
simultaneous release of the reducing gas.
Fig. 2b demonstrates the cumulative volume regularities of gas-
eous production with the addition of straw-type biomass in the
reducing process. Many researchers have investigated the total
gas volume through FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy)
by using the Beer-Lambert law, which focuses on the intensity of
transmittance [48,49]. However, the gas regulations were studied
by the synchronous gas analyzer in this research. The propose of
the cumulative gas volume was to provide a deeper understanding
Fig. 3. Effects on iron grade and recovery in different conditions for magnetic
of the reducing gas release process. As shown in Fig. 2b, as the concentrate.

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Y. Cao, Y. Sun, P. Gao et al.
gas flow ratio of H2 to CO was nearly 1:1. A flow rate of 1.0 mL/s
released from reducing gases could be calculated on average at
the optimal roasting time of 450 s. However, in light of the XRD
pattern (Fig. 5a) and the magnetization curves (Fig. 4b), little con-
tribution of the reducing gases could be made in the remaining
350 s. Another notable peak emerged in the range of 0–82 s
because of the minimal gas release. The preheating of the straw-
type biomass and the activation of cellulose, its main component,
were the reasons for this phenomenon and were also the inherent
properties of straw in the fast pyrolysis process [50,51].
3.3. Suspension magnetization roasting and magnetic separation
3.3.1. Effect of roasting time
The effect of roasting time on SMR was studied with the time
varying between 2.5 and 15.0 min, the roasting temperature at
Fig. 4. Effects on saturation magnetization of roasted sample.
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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 31 (2021) 1075–1083
700 °C and a biomass doge of 25%. The SMR results in terms of iron
grade and the recovery of concentrate are displayed in Fig. 3a. The
iron grade and recovery increased with the extension of roasting
time, showing the transformation of the magnetite phase. When
the roasting time was 7.5 min, the grade and recovery of iron con-
centrate were 69.86% and 94.41%, respectively. However, when the
roasting time increased from 7.5 to 15.0 min, the iron grade per-
centage decreased to 69.23% with a slight increase in the recovery
of concentrate. The decrease in iron grade indicated that overre-
duction occurred and magnetite was reduced to wustite during
the SMR process. Hence the optimal roasting time was determined
to be 7.5 min.
3.3.2. Effect of biomass dose
The effect of biomass dose on SMR was investigated within a
range of 10.0 to 35.0 wt%, a roasting temperature of 700 °C, and
a roasting time of 7.5 min. The effects of biomass dose on iron
grade and recovery in magnetic concentrate are displayed in
Fig. 3b. When the dose of biomass increased from 10 to 30 wt%,
the recovery of concentrate experienced a sharp rise. However,
the recovery dropped slightly when the dose of biomass continued
to increase. With increasing doses of biomass, the iron grade
increased slightly and peaked at 20 wt%. A reasonable explanation
for these observations is that excessive biomass could easily over
reduce the magnetite. The optimal grade of 69.85% and recovery
of 94.41% were determined at a biomass dose of 20 wt%.
3.3.3. Effect of roasting temperature
The effect of the suspension magnetization roasting tempera-
ture was investigated in the range of 450 to 900 °C. The other con-
ditions were as follows: a biomass dose of 20 wt% and a roasting
time of 7.5 min. The effects of biomass dose on iron grad and recov-
ery in magnetic concentrate are displayed in Fig. 3c. In the exper-
imental temperature range, both the iron grade and recovery
increased intensely when the roasting temperature increased from
450 to 800 °C. However, at 800 °C, the iron grade was significantly
higher than that at 850 °C and the recovery sharply dropped com-
pared to that at 900 °C. A reasonable explanation was that exces-
sive temperature over-reduced the iron ore and formed Fe3O4-
FeO-Fe. It was determined that the optimal grade of 71.07% and
recovery of 94.17% were obtained at the roasting temperature of
800 °C.
3.4. Magnetic properties and phase transformation
The saturation magnetization (MS) of roasting products as a
function of the magnetic field at room temperature is presented
in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4a and b present the relationships of roasting temperature,
and roasting time on the saturation magnetization of hematite
mixed with biomass, respectively.
For the hematite mixed with 20 wt% biomass at a roasting time
of 7.5 min, as shown in Fig. 4a, as the temperature increased from
600 to 800 °C, the saturation magnetization increased intensely,
varying from 13.62 to 35.05 A
m2
g1. The saturation magnetiza-
tion dropped rapidly when the roasting experiments were per-
formed at a higher temperature. It was obvious that pyrolyzing
straw-type biomass released more reducing gases, which over
reduced the magnetite to the weakly magnetic minerals at the
higher roasting temperatures. Fig. 4b demonstrates that the satura-
tion magnetization of roasted products conducted at 700 °C and
mixed with 20 wt% biomass varied with different roasting times.
The saturation magnetization value dramatically increased with
roasting time up to 7.5 min. Although the curves of roasted prod-
ucts at 7.5 and 10.0 min were nearly the same, the MS value of
products at 7.5 min was slightly higher than that at 10.0 min. As
Y. Cao, Y. Sun, P. Gao et al.
Fig. 5. X-ray diffraction patterns of refractory hematite mixed with straw-type biomass.
the roasting time was prolonged, the MS dropped down to 10.21
A
m2
g1 at 15.0 min. Hence, the roasting time of 7.5 min and a
temperature of 800 °C were the optimum conditions for reduction,
respectively.
The relationships of magnetization and the biomass dose to the
magnetic field are illustrated in Fig. 4c. It was clear that the bio-
mass showed a significant enhancement of the magnetization of
the mixture, compared with the negligible magnetization of raw
ore. The strength of the external magnetic field increased with a
synchronously increasing MS when the dose of biomass varied
from 10 to 25 wt%. The MS values of both the 20 and 25 wt% sam-
ples were 19.14 and 20.37 A
m2
g1, revealing that the biomass
dose of 25 wt% generated more reducing CO and H2 which could
reduce the hematite more completely than a dose of 20 wt%. How-
ever, from the perspective of magnetic separation (Fig. 4b), the iron
grade of concentrate in the 20 wt% biomass dose sample was
slightly higher than the grade of 25% sample, and the correspond-
ing grades of the 20 and 25 wt% samples were 69.85% and 69.43%,
respectively. Excessive biomass impurities were present in the
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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 31 (2021) 1075–1083
magnetic separation process and led to the observed results.
Accordingly, 20 wt% was the optimum dose because of its high iron
grade and low residue in the roasting process.
A phase transformation analysis of hematite mixed with straw-
type biomass was detected by X-ray diffraction analysis, and the
XRD results are illustrated in Fig. 5a and b. Fig. 5a reveals that
the characteristic peak of magnetite (3 1 1) gradually strengthened
and became prominent when the roasting time was extended to
2.5 min. The peak of magnetite (4 4 0) emerged and rapidly sharp-
ened at 2.5 min. However, the peak of hematite (104, 110, 116)
decreased sharply because the hematite was reduced by biomass
to a greater degree over 5.0 min than at 2.5 min. The characteristic
peak of hematite (104, 024) gradually diminished and finally van-
ished within 7.5 min. In addition, the significant characteristic
peaks that remained after 7.5 min were due to magnetite; the
hematite was completely reduced to magnetite.
As shown in Fig. 5b, the characteristic hematite peaks weak-
ened intensely when the temperature continuously increased to
600 °C. Conspicuous differences emerged at 600 °C, the tempera-
Y. Cao, Y. Sun, P. Gao et al.
ture at which the characteristic peaks of magnetite (311, 440)
began to appear. The XRD pattern exhibited no particularly visible
difference at 700 °C compared with the XRD pattern at 600 °C.
However, when the temperature increased to 800 °C, the peak
intensity of magnetite (2 1 2) increased sharply and the peak of
wustite (2 0 0) sharpened slowly, resulting in the higher iron grade
in Fig. 2b.
3.5. Microstructure evolution
The microstructure of the raw ore was determined by using
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy (EDS), as shown in Fig. 6a. It had a dense and smooth
section, and no fissures, holes or crevices were visible in the SEM
image.
The microstructure of roasted products at different roasting
temperature conditions was investigated by scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
(EDS), which is displayed in Fig. 6b–e. As shown in Fig. 6b, filled
Fig. 6. Cross-sectional SEM images and EDS spectra of reduced products at different roasting temperature.
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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 31 (2021) 1075–1083
with tiny holes, a microstructure image with a relatively flat sur-
face was obtained at 600 °C. However, the n(O)/n(Fe) ratio of the
roasted product was 1.3289 at 600 °C, as found at point 1 in Table 4.
As the roasting temperature increased to 700 °C, it was evident
that the roasted substance in Fig. 6c had a porous structure, and
there were a large number of fissures that divided the mineral par-
ticles into an outer core and an inner layer. According to the n(O)/n
(Fe) ratios of points (2, 3) and the XRD pattern (Fig. 5b), the mineral
particles were almost converted to magnetite by using biomass.
Fig. 6d illustrates that the cracks combined with fissures and tiny
holes in the outer layer deepened toward the core, and slight flaws
in the area of the inner core emerged rapidly. According to the XRD
pattern (Fig. 5b), the EDS results in Table 4 and the SEM image in
Fig. 6d, the mineral particles had the same morphological structure
as the magnetite shown in Fig. 6c though it was slightly over-
reduced. However, the morphological structure was almost com-
pletely destroyed, as shown in Fig. 6e at 850 °C. Obviously, the
mineral particle was over-reduced to wustite which made the iron
grade of the concentrate unusual, as shown in Fig. 3c.
Y. Cao, Y. Sun, P. Gao et al. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 31 (2021) 1075–1083

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