Maurício Covcevich Bagatini

Case study of thermal profile design for traveling grate pellet furnace

ABSTRACT Production of iron ore pellets with enough strength to resist the transport and reduction on reactors requires an accurate adjustment of traveling grate furnace process parameters. The firing zone is the most energy intensive step to ensure quality and this study based on Lean Six Sigma methodology to evaluate and optimize the thermal profile through temperature fine-tuning. A pilot scale assessment aid to analyze physical, chemical, metallurgical and microstructure properties of pellets through different temperatures to accurate industrial implementation. The validation of lab-scale trials was concluded by industrial implementation to guarantee the quality, productivity and reduced costs.

A case study of pellet size fraction influence on pelletizing operation

ABSTRACT Pellet production is constantly optimized considering different aspects of the production chain from run of mining (ROM) to metallic iron. Industrially, the trade-off between an optimum pellet-size-ratio and the maximum performance in the steel production chain is a relevant subject. The present case study at a Brazilian operation shows the impact of different pellet size fractions on performance of operation, improvements on the fired pellets, less fine generation during handling, and superior metallurgical behavior during the reduction process, resulting in the production of direct reduction iron (DRI) that add more value to the economic performance of the electric arc furnaces (EAF).