Demonstration plant for new direct iron making process

摘要

Ausmelt-Limited, based near Melbourne in Australia, has recently announced that it has arranged funding for a project to build a demonstration plant to test its direct ironmaking process. The demonstration plant will process 2 t/h of iron ore with coal to make hot metal. The new process - the Ausiron process - developed by Ausmelt and tested at pilot plant scale, can treat various iron-bearing materials. The feed materials are smelted in an agitated bath of molten slag in a vertical refractory lined furnace, see figure. The slag is heated to 1450 deg C by the flames of coal-fired submerged lances. The coal is burnt in oxygen-enriched air, and the gases from the lance stir the molten slag.