AU2007100781A4 - Iron-Coal Briquette - Google Patents

Description

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Cl- Iron Coal innovation description Having successfully rebuilt and refurbished the fire damaged factory portion of the plant, Mecrus has recruited staff and commissioned the plant into full time production and instigated a series of R&D projects to improve plant operational performance, understanding inefficiencies, improve safety and overall product quality.

One of these projects is the development of a composite Iron Ore brown coal briquette production process producing a composite single feedstock product economically transportable for downstream steel making systems.

Iron Ore Coal Briquette Manufacturing Process The briquettes are manufactured from processed brown coal, lime and iron ore. The coal is hammer-milled to an optimum size required for briquette production and then dried to remove moisture. The dry coal particles, lime and Iron Ore fines are delivered into the feed hopper of an extrusion press where rams force the coal-ore mix through the apertures formed in steel dies (forms) inserted at the front of press compression chambers.

The heat that is generated through the compression stage seals the outer edge of the properly formed briquette, helping to prevent moisture ingress and mechanical degradation during the post-production stage and handling.

The briquetting process raises the calorific value of the original raw material (brown coal) from 9 MJ/kg to 24 MJ/kg. The form allows a "stringer" of six briquettes to be formed together.

The end result of the project will be a cost effective and transportable Low sulphur, Low ash and highly compressed composite steel making feedstock suitable for direct reduction iron production or for input to blast furnace.

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Cl Background research 1 Research and continuous improvement of the Iron Ore brown coal briquette forming processes.

Specification and functional requirements development Develop conceptual design and drawings for first proof of concept Lime and Iron Ore premixing subsystems.

2 Develop test plans and KPIs to evaluate premixing performance (homogenous blending) along with review of final briquette quality outputs. (Skin quality, abradability, compressibility, cooling, moisture and waste generated).

Initial experimentation and prototyping Design and development of the prototype of the proof of concept Iron Coal composite briquette.

3* Low volume trials of the proof of concept subsystem Equipment reconfiguration to achieve optimum briquette production rates and lower wastage.

Identify areas for further improvement automation, remote process monitoring) Prototype testing Extensive Iron Ore, lime blending installation prototype trials with systematic evaluation of: Equipment configuration options Variable Feedstock composition 4 Variable Production rates Assess effects of variable ratios Ore to Coal blending on the physical characteristics of the briquette.

Monitor variations (increase or decrease) in product quality, productivity and amount of waste including wear rates of the form materials Results evaluation Continuous evaluation and benchmarking of the new system performance Issue identification and rectification 6 Identify need to vary product volumetric mix to improve output briquette quality, decrease wastage and minimise abrasion of press forming material.

Feedback R&D Continue long term monitoring and evaluation of the new blending system performance.

7 Detect, log and report incidences of abnormal briquette forming, high form materials wear rates and waste increases.

Research alternative solutions (materials) to reduce form wear providing increased form life.

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