Granule Design for the Sintering with Less Amount of Liquid Phase Formation

In order to clarify the conditions to produce a dense and large pellet required from the MEBIOS method, some basic sintering experiments were conducted. Consequently, the pellet having a sufficient strength as a blast furnace burden was able to be produced by selecting the composition of the pellet and the temperature so that the liquid phase ratio in the CaO–Fe2O3–SiO2 system was about 40 mass%. Moreover, it was confirmed by the sintering pot experiment using X-ray CT that a void was formed around the pellet when this pellet was placed in the sintering mixture. The crushing strength of the pellet collected from the sinter cake was low. However, increasing of the basicity of the pellet and extension of the retention time at high temperature were effective for improving the crushing strength of the pellet.