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Plasma Reduction of Iron Oxide by Methane Gas and its Process Up‐scaling
Author(s) -
Badr Karim,
Bäck Eduard,
Krieger Wilfried
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
steel research international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.603
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1869-344X
pISSN - 1611-3683
DOI - 10.1002/srin.200705892
Subject(s) - methane , smelting , hydrogen , plasma , natural gas , reduction (mathematics) , environmental science , chemistry , metallurgy , materials science , waste management , engineering , physics , mathematics , geometry , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
This paper investigates the characteristics of the methane plasma reduction of iron ore in comparison to that of the hydrogen plasma reduction process. Although hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) has potential advantages as a steelmaking alternative in terms of simplicity (less operation units) and less harmful detrimental environmental implications, its high cost has a negative influence on its usage. In this regard, natural gas (> 96 % methane) could be adopted in the field of plasma smelting reduction. A brief comparison between hydrogen and methane options has been carried out experimentally. Heat and mass balance models were conducted to explore the features of up‐scaled processes with respect to consumption figures and CO 2 emissions. It was found that the methane plasma is a good alternative iron oxide smelting process.