Two Specialists Partner to Commercialize a Technology for Iron Ore Fines Recovery

In December last year, Tenova HYL and Diproinduca Canada Ltd. have entered into a commercial alliance agreement. Tenova  is a part of the Techint Group and a worldwide partner for solutions in metals and mining, while Diproinduca acts as an international company with experience in processing, recycling, briquetting and commercializing by-products in the iron and steel industry.  

Their goal is to develop and commercialize the DRB (Direct Reduced Briquettes) technology oriented to recovery and recycling of iron ore fines in Direct Reduction (DR) plants. Iron ore low value by-products in DR plants include the fines from scrubbing systems of material handling, iron ore screening and the sludge mainly produced in the scrubbing systems of the reduction and cooling gas circuits of DR installations. These particles are currently disposed of at a cost or are sold at low-priced by-products. “The DRB technology is intended to recover and recycle these fines, which have the cost of the iron ore on site, by producing briquettes that can be fed directly into the DR reducing reactor to produce DRI,” the companies explain. “In this way, the overall yield is significantly increased, the operating costs are reduced and the disposal logistics costs of the DR plants are eliminated.”

As reported, the technology is based on the production of briquettes made from the recovered iron ore fines from various sources, suitable for production of DRI with the same quality of the DRI actually being produced in the DR plant. It has been developed and tested in industrial plants. According to the information, tests results “have shown an average metallization of 94 to 95 percent with carbon content of about 3 percent and low fines generation, all at the same level of the DRI actually produced from iron ore pellets, reflecting the excellent behavior of the briquettes in terms of porosity and mechanical strength during the reduction process inside the industrial reactor”.

Currently, a demonstration plant has been installed in Monterrey, Mexico, with the purpose of recycling fines from screening and sludge at the DR plant at Ternium facilities.

Foto: pixabay

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