Method of direct reduction of iron ores

US3948646A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Thyssen Niederrhein AG Hutten-und Walzwerke

Inventors

• Heinz-Dieter Pantke
• Ulrich Pohl · Bremen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 16, 1974
• Grant date: Apr 6, 1976
• Expiry date: Jul 16, 1994

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02P10/134
• WIPO field: Materials, metallurgy
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

The direct reduction of iron ore, e.g., in a shaft furnace, uses a pair of reducing-gas generating reformers which are alternately heated and functionally interchanged to produce the reducing gas. Downstream of each of the reformers is an air-preheating heat exchanger and between both reformers and the direct-reduction furnace there is provided a buffer heat exchanger. The combination reduces the fluctuations of the reducing-gas temperature at the inlet to the direct-reduction furnace and is able to maintain a reducing-gas temperature close to the desirable maximum for effective reduction.