Porosity in Iron Ore Sintering
19 May 22
4:00 PM
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4:30 PM
Iron ore sinter properties such as strength, reducibility and mineralogy are crucial for blast furnace operations. New evidence suggests that porosity might be the main factor controlling reducibility, not mineralogy. To investigate porosity of simple sinter systems, hematite and magnetite were mixed with lime and silica, and fired at controlled conditions. The influence of maximum temperature, holding time, and chemistry on porosity were verified by image analysis techniques using Optical Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy images. The results demonstrated a stronger influence of chemistry on porosity rather than temperature and time. The hematite-lime-silica-containing samples presented the highest porosity (close to 30%), while the pure hematite samples had the lowest porosity (less than 5%).