Study of biomass utilisation in the iron ore sintering

Abstract

Dominating globally and within Ukraine, the blast-furnace practice for iron production requires iron ore sintering preparation wherein the significant amount of fossil fuel is consumed, accompanied by harmful emissions into the environment. Pursuing the purpose to mitigate this negative impact, we address the promising direction of biomass utilisation for a partial replacement of fossil fuels in iron ore sintering. This paper considers the benefits of fossil fuels substitution with biomass, the world practice of biomass utilisation in iron ore sintering and the scope of the biomass energy potential in Ukraine. The study for obtaining sinters with the use of raw biomass fuels (sunflower husk, walnut shell) and charcoal has been carried out via lab-scale sintering pot. The influence of various biomaterials types on the process of iron ore sintering have been investigated and the obtained sinter quality in comparison with the conventional types of the fuels allows establishing the feasibility of replacing 25 % of coke breeze by charcoal or by walnut shell. The sunflower husk application is possible if preliminary preparation of the material for increasing bulk density is assumed to be carried out, for instance, by pressing.