ISO

9001:2000

OPTIMISED SPONGE IRON MAKING PROCESS

A.C. Verma – Jt. M.D., SPONGYTECH

The use of high-grade iron ore as well as non-coking coal for

manufacture of DRI (Sponge Iron) as an alternative to steel scrap
finally received due attention. The first DRI unit in India was
commissioned in ’80 by Sponge Iron India Ltd. (SIIL) based on SL/RN
process of LURGI with a capacity of 30,000 TPA. TILL Year 1995 DRI
was used by electric arc and induction furnaces to the extent of 20-25
per cent, the balance being steel scrap.
The sharp increase in the international price of steel scrap and
the change in Dollar-Rupee parity have made import of steel scrap an
expensive proposition. Therefore, import of scrap was in a declining
trend and production of DRI increased steadily.
In such a situation, the consumers of DRI have found
indigenous ways to enhance the usage of DRI with appropriate
feeding system to the furnace. While the induction furnace units are
presently using up-to 70 % DRI, the EAF units have been using DRI
to the extent of 75-80%. In other words, overall DRI has now become
the major ingredient with steel scrap in steel making in India
especially with the secondary producers

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9001:2000

Production of sponge iron in India has increased mainly

because of expansion of coal based units. The present installed
capacities of coal based sponge iron plants in India and segment
wise production trend has been tabulated below for the better
compression:-
(A) INSTALLED CAPACITY
Range of installed capacity No. of units
in tonnes per annum
0 – 30,000 90
30,000 – 60,000 47
60,000 – 1,00,000 35
1,00,000 – 2,50,000 40
more than 2,50,000 15

(B) PRODUCTION TREND

The Segment wise Iron & Steel production trend -

Segment 2001-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07

Pig Iron 4.07 5.28 3.76 3.23 4.69 4.96
Sponge Iron 5.44 6.91 8.08 10.30 12.65 15.34
Coal Based: 64.06%
Gas Based: 35.94%

The Segment wise (Non Alloy) production trend -

ITEM 95-96 2000-01 03-04 04-05 05-06

NON-FLATS 10.99 12.48 15.14 15.88 17.78
FLATS 10.41 16.79 21.82 24.18 26.76
FINISHED STEEL 21.19 29.27 36.96 40.05 44.54

The paradigm shift in the segment wise production can be observed in the
table above.
India’s Integration with the External Markets:-
Because of the high level of protectionism, until recently, the
volume of foreign trade relative to the size and diversity of the Indian
economy has been low. In addition, there has been a persistent trade
deficit, caused by imports of oil, Raw Materials, Consumer goods,

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9001:2000

Jewels, Chemicals and fertilizers. Exports of Iron & Steel products

became almost as an excess or residue of domestic demand. But the
situation has now been changed Indian steel is integrating with the
external market and has become globally competitive. The facts are
represented vividly in the following table:-
Table - 1

INDIA’S INTEGRATION TO EXTERNAL MARKETS: ALLOYS + Non-Alloy (1)

YEAR PRODUCTION EXPORTS EX% PRODUCTION

2001-02 31625 2829.2 8.9

03-04 39243 5891 15.0

04-05 42326 4966 11.7

05-06 46822 5189.1 11.1

06-07 49350 4750 9.6

Table - 2
INDIA’S INTEGRATION TO EXTERNAL MARKETS: Pig Iron

YEAR PRODUCTION EXPORTS EX% PRODUCTION

2001-02 4071 312 7.7

02-03 5285 629 11.9

03-04 3764 518 13.8

04-05 3228 393 12.2

05-06 4695 440 9.4

Source: Ministry of Steel Government of India.

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DEMAND
The growth of sponge iron sector has been phenomenal during
the last 16 years in terms of both capacity and production. Installed
capacity has increased from approx. 1.5 MTPA in 1990-91 to a
current level of approx. 18.05 MTPA, while the production has grown
from 0.9 MT 1990-91 to approx. 15.34 MT in 2006-07. However, the
non-availability of natural gas in requisite amounts and the non-
availability of non-coking coal of required quantity and quality
continue to be a problem for the gas-based plants.

APPARENT STEEL CONSUMPTION IN INDIA

QTY IN MILLION TONS

50
40
30
20
10
0
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
INDIA 22.6 23.5 25 26.5 27.4 28.9 31.2 33.3 36.7 40

Year

PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON & CRUDE STEEL IN INDIA

QTY IN MILLION TONS

50

40

30

20

10
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
PIG IRON 21.1 20.2 20.1 21.3 21.9 24.3 26.6 25.1 27.1 28.3
CRUDE STEEL 24.4 23.5 24.3 26.9 27.3 28.8 31.8 32.6 40.9 44.0

Year

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 ISO
9001:2000

DRI (Sponge Iron) is mainly consumed by the electric furnace

units along with steel scrap as raw materials.
Indian Steel Industry - Strengths:-
 A large Population Base…..over 1 billion heads
 A booming middle Class over 100 million heads
 Paradigm shift in consumer spending
 Booming Housing sector
 Strong and organised money market/Banking system
 Skilled Labour and large pool of technical and managerial work
force
 Large infrastructure projects(Highways / Expressways, Bridges,
Airports / Ports / Railways)
 Low cost and efficient Labour force
 Enhanced Energy Sector—by 2007-12 67,000 MW of Power
 Strongly globalised and emerging global competitive industry
 Strong DRI base, Highest Producer of Sponge Iron / DRI
 Regional dispersal of merchant rolling mills

The production of finished steel during 2006-07 has been 49.35

million tonnes for which 27 million tonnes of steel scrap/DRI/HBI was
consumed. Considering the present charge mix, trend of export, the
demand of DRI during 2007-08, Steel industry has a derived demand.
It derives its strength for growth and development largely from the
growth and development of the sectors having higher intensity of
steel consumption. India has made significant investment in such
sectors during the last two five year plan periods. The current five
year plan (11th Plan: 2007-08 to 2011-12) also envisages higher
investment.

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Investment pattern in Steel sectors, the back seat driver

Vibrant Economy-expenditure Pattern during last two – V, year plans

(Us $ Bn.)

Area IX Plan X Plan Growth (%)

Airports 0.6 0.9 56.7
Irrigation 7.6 19.3 152.9
Ports 0.5 1.1 98.6
Power 7.8 11.7 49.3
Railways 4.3 5.6 30.6
Roads 12.1 19 57.4
Telecom 1.8 1.9 8.6
Tourism 0.1 0.35 392.4
Urban Infrastr. 7.8 18.5 135.4
Total 42.6 78.5 83.6

 Steel being a capital intensive sector, public sector played a

dominant role in pre liberalized era Situation has now been
changed. Private sector has taken the lead in the Development
and growth of this sector.


Distribution of share of public & private sector
Production: 2006-07 (49.6 mlt)

RINL
7%

SAIL
25%

Private
Sector
68%

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Some weaknesses of the Indian Steel sector:-

1. There is no denying the fact that new technologies can lead to

higher productivity but the annual accounts of the steel
companies reveal a very low level of expenditure on R&D
aspect.

2. The problem of poor labor productivity has to be tackled to

bring the fruits of low labor cost.

3. The bottleneck is regard to infrastructure, inadequate transport

facilities have to be removed with improvement in the logistic
network.

4. Shortages of coking coal, another bottleneck has to be sorted

out with long term negotiations with the supplying countries.

5. High energy cost is another area that needs to be addressed

on priority.

6. The heat generated from the gas is being used to generate

steam. This steam generated, is used for captive power
generation with the result that the unit has become a
considerable net exporter of electricity, with consequent
economic benefits to the overall steel making facility.

The spiraling price of fuel, increasing demand of sponge iron and

present market recession has forced the engineers to find out some
alternative to reduce the production cost and make the sponge iron
producing process cheaper and cheaper besides saving the global
warming.

 There has been continuous research and development in the

field of various types of furnaces in the sector of STEEL, in terms
of productivity, efficiencies, quality and environment.

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 ISO
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 To meet the high rate of production from plant, SPONGY TECH

has come out with unique sponge iron making process.
 In this process a fuel economizer named ―AAG‖ is suggested to
install parallel to ABC on top of the feed chute of sponge iron kiln
as shown in Schematic Diagram. The iron ore passes through the
fuel economizer and enters into the kiln at temperature of around
7000C, where as the mixture of Coal and Dolomite follows the
conventional route. The hot gases, induced from ABC, blown in
to iron ore chamber, resulting the exchange of heat from the hot
gases while passing through the fuel economizer and rise in
temperature of the Iron Ore before entering into the kiln. It is
known that heat transfer is directly proportional to the area in
contact.
 This fuel economizer, iron ore is continuously fed through in-built
mechanism and traveling through multi deck platforms cum
conveyor and in process, progress towards metallization due to
surface area exposed to hot gases, the excellent heat transfer to
the extent of 85% efficiency is achieved.
 The Iron Oxide Reacts with carbon between 7270C and 11270C –
C + O2  CO2
C + CO2  2CO
C + H2O  CO + H2
CH4 + CO2  2H2 + 2CO
First two reactions tack place in reactor when carbon is oxidized by
oxygen of air.
The second reaction is known as ―BOUDOUARD RECTION‖.
The third reaction tacks place between carbon and water vapor, from
the combustion of air or moisture from the raw Materials in the
reactor.
From the above reaction it is obvious that BOUDOUARD RECTION
takes place only when the coal is present hence to avoid this reaction
coal is not added in the fuel economizer.

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 ISO
9001:2000

 The reduction of iron ore takes place beyond 7270C it is thus

heating of iron ore is restricted to 7000C.
The preheated iron ore goes into main reduction kiln at about 700 0C
and reduction of this preheated Iron Ore literally starts from second
zone of main reduction kiln instead of fourth zone, as in case of
conventional kiln. Hence retention time of kiln feed is decreased as a
result the output rate increases. This results the higher production of
sponge iron. The preheating of iron ore in the Fuel economizer with
the help of the HOT WASTE GAS coming out from ABC / DRI kiln
results not only the saving of coal consumption but also reduction in
the global atmospheric temperature rise i.e. the equipment is helping
the humanity and thus liable to achieve international carbon credit
without loosing the economic advantage.
This technology will increase the use of CHEMICAL ENERGY in
order to reduce ELECTRICAL ENERGY requirement.
Hot gas temperature coming out of ABC – 10000C
Approx heat available in this hot gas – 360 Kcal / M3
Approx Heat required to raise the temp. – 150 Kcal / Kg
of Iron Ore from ambient to 7000C
Quantity of hot gas, at 10000C, required – 0.6 M3/Kg of I.O.
to raise the temperature of Iron Ore from
ambient to 7000C, considering all losses
This confirms the availability of sufficient heat and quantity of
gas for the purpose.
Approx resultant temp. of hot gasses – 9500C
from ABC and the fuel economizer
This confirms that along with this fuel economizer WHRB also can be
operated to produce power.

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 ISO
9001:2000

SPECIAL FEATURE OF SPONGE IRON KILN WITH ―AAG‖ FUEL

ECONOMIZER
USE OF THIS UNIQUE EQUIPMENT –
* Increases the output of existing kiln to the extent of 20%
minimum.
* Reduces the coal consumption to extent of 4.5% minimum.
* The retention time in Fuel Economizer can be adjusted to
achieve the required temperature.
* In this mechanism the material is pushed gently and not allowed
to tumble.
* Generation of – 3 mm fines in product is less as the slow heating
has been avoided.
* Requires no additional space to be installed.
* This equipment can even be added in the existing plant with
certain modifications. It requires minimum stoppage of plant to be
hooked with existing plant.
* The system can be adopted without disturbing the power
generation system.
* Pay back period is much less to compensate the investment.
This unique approach has been made to compensate the market
shock and improve the environment along with saving the reserve of
exhausting non-cooking coal.

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