LAUSR

Sintering is a thermal agglomeration process that is applied to a mixture of iron ore fines, recycled ironmaking by-products, fluxes, slag-forming agents, and solid fuel (coke).1–4) In the sintering process the sinter mixture undergoes a series of reactions,2,4,5) during which the process temperature rises up to 1 300–1 480°C4) or to 1 300–1 375°C5) at maximum. The purpose of the sintering process is manufacturing a porous product with suitable thermal, mechanical, physical and chemical characteristics to be used as blast furnace feed to produce hot metal.1–3) The bonding between the particles is caused by partial melting and recrystallization, and therefore no additional binder needs to be added in this process.4) Sinter performs well in the blast furnace, particularly if it is made with fluxes added before sintering and is sized to 25 mm × 6 mm before charging into the furnace.6) Sinter burdens in a blast furnace process are prevalent in European7) and Asian7,8) blast furnaces, while pellet burdens are used more commonly in Scandinavia and North America.7) Both the sintering process and the sinter material have been widely studied in the iron and steelmaking industry as reported by e.g. Fernández-González et al.1–3,9) in their recent review papers. Review on the Phase Equilibria in Iron Ore Sinters