Thermodynamic modelling of reduction of iron ore materials by hydrogen-containing gases

The article presents the results of studying the processes of reduction of iron ore titanomagnetite pellets with synthesis gas by means of thermo­dy­namic modeling using the Terra software package. Its use made it possible to model and predict chemical and phase transformations in iron ore titanomagnetite pellets during reduction using hydrogen-containing synthesis gas, taking into account the effect of temperature, hydrogen concentration and other parameters on reduction. Calculations were performed with different gas mixture contents to evaluate the model efficiency. Content of the CO – N 2 – H 2 – CH 4 gas mixture for calculations varied with an increase in CO and H 2 , decrease in N 2 and constant CH 4 . Thermodynamic modeling showed that when balance of the main phases in high-temperature systems is achieved during reduction with various gas mixtures, the concentration of distribution of silicon, aluminum, titanium, magnesium, and calcium elements remains constant. Significant changes are observed in the concentration of iron, vanadium, and manganese, which is associated with the features of reduction process and composition of the gases used. Dependences of the system equilibrium composition on temperature at various element contents were obtained. The constructed thermodynamic model describes the reduction process and can be used to optimize it under various production conditions.