An ironmaking process which can continuously produce hot metal by using iron concentrate and non-coking coal and air as raw materials in the cupola using coal fines as a fuel only, has been suggested by authors. In the process, the heat is supplied by the swirling flow combustion of coal fines and air in a horizontal front furnace and the resultant hot gas goes into a shaft furnace through an arch fire-culvert to preheat and prereduce the cold-bonded coal-bearing pellets. The prereduced pellets are melted, overheated and fully reduced at the arch fire-culvert and the bottom of shaft furnace, then the produced melts float into the front furnace to fulfil the separation hot metal from slag. Some semi-industrial tests of this ironmaking process were carried out, in which the consumption of coal and electricity was 916 Kg and 80 Kwh respectively. The recovery ratio of iron was about 92 percent and the hot metal productivity was 6 T/D.M3. The process may be developed into a commercial ironmaking process by only using non-coking coal and iron concentrates.
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