The performance and charge behaviour in melter/smelter for the production of hot metal in hydrogen DRI-based steelmaking

Direct reduced iron (DRI)-based steelmaking requires high-grade iron ore (Fe > 65 wt-%). However, a swift decline in ore grade has forced steelmakers to use lower-grade ores for DRI making, creating challenges in subsequent processes dealing with high gangue content for steelmaking. Hence, an intermediate melting/smelting furnace has been proposed to treat high gangue content from the DRI before transferring hot metal into an electric arc furnace (EAF)/basic oxygen furnace (BOF) for steelmaking. This study investigates and models the performance and charge behaviour in a melter/smelter with respect to the gangue content, DRI carbon content and temperature. The results showed that the specific energy consumption (SEC) and off-gas production increase with increasing temperature, carbon in DRI and gangue content. At 90 wt-% metallisation ratio (MR) using the lowest-grade ore (gangue 16 wt-%), the SEC at 1300 °C was calculated to be 706 kWh/tHM compared to 850 kWh/tHM at 1600 °C using 3.5 wt-% carbon. The MR is predicted to profoundly impact the SEC, as the increasing MR decreases the SEC markedly. At 90 wt-% MR, the SEC using the lowest-grade ore was 805 kWh/tHM, decreasing to 684 kWh/tHM using 100 wt-%MR. Increasing MR, carbon in DRI and temperature decreases slag production consistently while increasing with the increasing gangue. Using hot DRI onsite is predicted to significantly reduce the SEC compared to cold DRI. Overall, the energy demand from cold DRI is predicted to be 120 kWh/tHM higher than hot DRI. Increasing the scrap-to-DRI ratio is predicted to decrease the energy demand, that is, every 1.0 wt-% increase in scrap decreases the SEC by 2.5 kWh/tHM.