Use of solid fuel in the production of pellets with Venezuelan iron ore

The pellet plant of Sidor consists of a dry grinding process for the iron ore and an induration process which takes place in a travelling grate furnace. The technical personnel considered the necessity of increasing the actual levels of productivity of 417 t/h and the abrasion index of 6%. To obtain this target, the technicians developed a series of pilot tests using solid fuel in the pelletizing mixture which gave positive results in the production of fluxed pellets using Venezuelan hematitic ore. At the industrial level the results were more successful than at pilot level; the productivity and the quality of pellets improved above the design values. The amount of coke used in the mixture was 0.7% and it required a significant change in the thermal profile of the furnace. The productivity increased 22.5% the abrasion index improved by 17.0%. The energy consumption was reduced to 25%. After this successful campaign there are plans for increasing the coke addition more than 1% which will allow abrasion levels between 4.0 and 4.5%, the compression strength between 320 and 330 Kg/pellet and also increase the productivity of the plant.