Sticking behaviour and mechanism of iron ore pellets in COREX pre-reduction shaft furnace

COREX is a clean process releasing lower pollution and consuming fewer cokes than the blast furnace process. However, serious sticking phenomenon often occurs in COREX shaft furnace, causing many problems to the normal operation. In this study, the loading reduction experiments of iron ore pellets were carried out under the simulating COREX reducing conditions. The influence of temperature and H-2 content in the syngas on the sticking behaviour of the pellets was observed by scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive spectrometer and X-ray diffraction. The results indicated that the sticking index increased from 6.7 to 90.43%, when the temperature increased from 750 to 950 degrees C. The main composition of sticking material was metallic iron, and the sticking behaviour depended upon the amount and morphology of precipitated iron on the pellets' surface. The sticking mechanism was the interpenetrating diffusion mechanism of iron atoms between the adjacent pellets.