Pig Iron Price in India
Overview
Pig iron is made by smelting iron ore (also known as ilmenite) with a high-carbon fuel and reductant, such as coke, and a flux, commonly limestone. Also utilised as a fuel and reductant are charcoal and anthracite.
Pig iron is manufactured and utilised almost entirely within integrated steel mill complexes. The phrase “pig iron” is a misnomer in this context: blast furnace iron is delivered directly to the steel plant in liquid state, better known as “hot metal” or “blast furnace iron,” within integrated steel mills.
The term “pig iron” originated when hot metal was cast into ingots before being charged to a steel plant. The moulds were set up in sand beds so that they could all be fed from the same runner. The ingots were dubbed “pigs,” and the runner was dubbed “sow,” since the moulds resembled a litter of sucking pigs.
Abstract
Pig iron has been produced from trash from a crushing facility. The hot blast cupola (HBC) furnace was used to prepare pig iron, and it was injected with charcoal powder to optimise the temperature process and reduction zone in the furnace. As part of an effort to enhance the iron content of crushing plant waste, the procedure began with a washing process and magnetic separation of the raw material. The next step was to make a composite pellet with an 80 + 100 mesh particle size and a mix of 80 percent iron ore, 15 percent wood charcoal, and 5% bentonite. The pellet size ranged from 2.5 to 4.0 mm. In the HBC furnace, the experiment was continued to minimise pellet composite. 93.62 percent Fe, 3.5 percent C, 1.55 percent Si, 0.87 percent Mn, 0.05 percent P, and 0.087 percent S were found in the pig iron generated by this technique. As a result, the pig iron produced meets the metallurgical requirements for usage in the smelting sector.
In the mining business, a crushing plant is one of the most significant processing units. In mineral mine processing, process sequences begin with the crushing plant unit, which reduces larger mineral sizes to the appropriate size for use in subsequent processing. Fine iron ore waste accounts for 30% of total feeds in a crusher plant unit in the iron ore mining business. This is referred to as a waste since it cannot be directly utilised in the smelting process to produce metal. Because this iron ore waste has a low iron content (Fe 56%), a Fe content enhancement treatment is required before it can be used as a feed material in the pig iron smelting process. Pig iron is a solid type of hot metal made from iron ore or waste, and it’s made in a blast furnace or an electric arc furnace.
Imported scrap procurements frequently run into issues since not all scraps have been removed from dangerous and toxic garbage. In India, there was a tremendous increase of electric arc furnace (EAF) and induction furnace (IF) based steel producing operations in the early 1970s and 1980s. India is the only country in the world that uses induction furnaces to produce steel on a significant scale. As a result, there was an increasing demand for steel scrap, which resulted in a scarcity of the material. Furthermore, substantial advancements in steel plant yield, rolling technology, and continuous casting processes have reduced scrap generation in the plant.
As a result, there is a scarcity of scrap around the world, and prices are constantly fluctuating. The process of smelting fine iron ore in a cupola furnace is similar to that of smelting fine iron ore in a blast furnace, with a slight change in kinetic reaction. Carbon dioxide (CO) generated as a result of carbon change in the reduction environment reduces iron ore or iron oxide in the blast furnace. Hot blast cupola refers to the modification of a cupola furnace by adding hot air (500–700 °C) from the burning process. This hot air addition cuts down on coke consumption and improves the reduction zone.
Wood charcoal in the cupola furnace is recommended for cupolas with a capacity of 3 tonnes per day or less, but not for larger cupolas. Because of their poor hardness and toughness, wood charcoals will be easily broken as they are struck down by other raw materials. When compared to coke, wood charcoal is more reactive, and the burning result produces a larger amount of burning temperature lowers easily. Previous studies focused mostly on iron ore smelting, with only a few studies focusing on wood charcoal injection into cupola furnaces. As a result, this study produced pig iron using a hot blast cupola that was injected with wood charcoal powder to increase the reduction zone in the cupola furnace.
As illustrated in Fig. 1, the materials to employ were iron ore waste and wood charcoal powder. The iron ore waste came from a crushing mill in Lampung province’s Tanjung Bintang sub district of South Lampung district. In the wood charcoal industry in Natar sub district of South Lampung district, Lampung province, wood charcoal powder was obtained as a byproduct of charcoal sieving. During the procedure, bentonite was utilised as a binder and coke was employed as a reducer and energy source. In this study, supportive materials included lime stone (CaCO3), steel scrap, castable, refractory brick, refractory cement, and moulded sand.
Research procedure
Preparation of iron ore waste raw material and wood charcoal powder was the initial step. Washing and magnetic separation methods enhanced the Fe content of crusher plant waste. A customised sand washing machine was used for the washing procedure. Its functioning premise was to separate impurity elements using centrifugal force, while filthy ores were dissolved into sludge and pulp using water pressure force. After that, gravity and decantation techniques were used to separate the two of them. Materials that had been cleansed of contaminants were fed into a magnetic separator to improve the Fe content of iron ore waste.
The first step in the charcoal waste preparation process was to wash it with a rotating screen washer, which blew pressurised water into the trash to remove contaminants. This method yielded wood charcoal with a size of 25 mm that was devoid of soil contaminants. The wood charcoal waste had to be processed using a hammer mill and a disc mill in order to be used in this experiment, and this procedure created wood charcoal powder with a 40 + 60 mesh size that was to be injected into the hot blast cupola furnace.
As seen in Fig. 2, the second method produced composite pellets. Within the steelmaking business, the palletizing process is one of the most critical phases in providing high-quality agglomerates with the added benefit of reusing ultra fines. The composite pellet was manufactured from raw materials with an average particle size of 8 + 100 mesh and a composition of 80% iron ore, 15% wood charcoal, and 5% bentonite. The particle size that resulted was 2.5–4.0 mm, which is known as a green pellet. This green pellet was left out in the open for 3–24 hours before being dried in an oven at 110–120 degrees Celsius.
In the third operation, composite pellets were reduced in a hot blast cupola (HBC) furnace (Fig. 3). The reduction stage began with the furnace being preheated with 150 kg of coke. The furnace was then filled with 150 kg scrap, 50 kg coke, and 15 kg lime. After the furnace state had stabilised, the usage of scrap was lowered by 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% until it was reduced to 0% of the feed weight. At the same time, a screw feeder mechanism was used to inject wood charcoal powder into the HBC furnace.