Smelting Potential of HIsmelt Technology for High-Phosphorus Iron Ore and Ilmenite

HIsmelt is an energy-saving and emission-reducing technology as compared to the blast furnaces (BF). This paper analyzed the preponderances of smelting high-phosphorus iron ore and ilmenite by HIsmelt technology, which is reserved vastly in China. The results showed that it is very suitable for smelting ilmenite, and iron recovery rate reached 95% with titanium content lower than 0.05% (under the conditions of 30 min holding time at 1550 °C, basicity of 1.1, C/O molar ratio of 1.0 and oxygen enriched flow rate of 250 L/h). The iron recovery rate for high-phosphorus iron ore reached 92% with relatively high phosphorus content of pig iron about 0.28%under the reduction temperature of 1450 °C. Although decreasing amplitude of phosphorus content was remarkable(0.9% in raw iron ore vs. 0.28% in pig iron), the molten iron was still not satisfied with the requirement of steelmaking. External dephosphorization of hot metal by its remanent oxidation atmosphere or ore matching could solve the problem. It can be proposed that the industrialization of HIsmelt technology in China conduce to exploit the abundant high-phosphorus iron ore and ilmenite in China and get rid of the dependence of iron ore imports.