Development of Monitoring System of Dehydration of Iron Ore

A new monitoring system for water in iron ore has been established. Ore sample in nitrogen gas flow was heated with an electric furnace, and generated water was lead continuously to the Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) with nitrogen gas carrier. This monitoring system has a time-resolved of 12 sec minimum on the condition with invented gas measuring cell and gas lines. Using this system, different profiles of water generated from several drop-shaped iron ore samples could be obtained. It was found that they should have two peaks of water generated from goethite [α-FeO(OH)] and Kaolin at the different range of temperature. Furthermore, the calibration curve with copper sulfate penta hydrate of a standard material showed good linearity. The analytical results of water in ore samples were in good agreement with their values analyzed by JIS method. The present system will be applied to characterize the mechanism of pore formation on sinter reaction of iron ore.