Study on Reduction Kinetics of Briquettes of Hematite Fines with Boiler Grade Coal and Coke Dust in Two Different Forms: Intermixing and Multilayered

An attempt has been made to utilise hematite ore fines in the form of briquettes with two different form of mixing i.e. intermixing and multilayered by means of carbothermal reduction along with boiler grade coal and coke dust. The influence of reduction temperature (1323, 1373 and 1423 K) and reduction time (10, 20, 30, 45 and 60 min) has been investigated in detail and the reduced briquettes are characterised by XRD, SEM analyses. The reducibility of intermixing briquettes is found to be higher for multilayered briquettes. In addition, isothermal kinetic study has also been carried out for both intermixing and multilayered briquettes. The activation energy for intermixing briquettes are evaluated to be 125.88 kJ/mol for the initial stage of reaction (CG3 controlled mechanism) and 113.11 kJ/mol for the later part of reaction (D3 controlled mechanism), respectively. In case of multilayered briquettes, the corresponding activation energy is found to be 235.59 kJ/mol for reaction (CG3 controlled mechanism). These results corroborate the observed better reducibility of the intermixing briquettes over multilayered briquettes.