Hydrogen-Based Direct Reduction of Iron Oxides Pellets Modeling

The present study deals with the analyses of the direct reduction kinetics during the hydrogen reduction of industrial iron oxide pellets. Various types of pellets with different percentage of total iron content and metal oxides are examined. They are reduced at different temperatures and pressure (700-1100 degrees C and 1-6 bar) in hydrogen atmosphere. The reduction behavior is described in terms of time to reduction, rate of reduction, and kinetics constant. All the obtained results are analyzed through the employment of a commercial multiobjective optimization tool to precisely define the weight that each single parameter has on the reduction behavior. It is shown that from the point of view of the processing conditions, temperature is the main factor influencing the time to total reduction. From the point of view of the pellets properties, it is mainly influenced by the total iron percentage and then by porosity and basicity index. Also, the kinetics behavior is largely influenced by the reduction temperature even if it is mainly governed by the porosity and pores size from the point of view of the reduced pellets. The reduction rate is also mainly influenced by temperature and then by iron percentage, gas pressure, basicity index, and porosity.