Experimental investigation on the optimal carbon/hydrogen ratiofor developing an iron bath reactor with H₂-C mixture reduction-II

Abstract

The basic idea of H₂-C mixture reduction reflects the advantages of hydrogenfor fast reaction and low heat absorption in a smelting reduction reactor where hydrogenis used as the main reducing agent and carbon as the main heat generator on purpose to cutdown the total energy consumption and CO₂ emission. This work aimed at theexperimental investigation of the optimal carbon/hydrogen ratio, a key parameter of ironoxide reduction with mixture reductive agents of carbon and hydrogen. Experiments werecarried out using a pure Al₂O₃ crucible which was placed in atubular furnace for high temperature. Two investigation methods were adopted: one wasinjecting an acetylene/hydrogen mixture reducing gas into molten iron oxides, and theother was blowing hydrogen into an iron bath during continuous feeding of fine ore mixingsolid carbon. Parameters such as the apparent de-oxidation rate and utilization ratio ofreductive agents were calculated from content analysis of the exhaust gas after dustremoval and drying. In the experiments the highest total de-oxidation rate andsatisfactory apparent utilization ratio of hydrogen were obtained under conditions withtemperatures of 1823 K and the carbon/hydrogen ratio in the region of 0.5:1 to 1:1.