sponge iron industry –past-present-future - SIMA

CHAIRMAN
V S BAPNA
VICE CHAIRMAN
B L AGRAWAL
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
S S BHATNAGAR
GOVERNING BODY
V S Bapna
B L Agrawal
N K Patnaik
Suresh Thawani
G K Chhanghani
Rajesh Gupta
Sushil Maroo
P L Mohanty
P Mohanty
T Srinivasa Rao
V Ramachandran
Prakash Tatia
Narayan Tekriwal
Amitabh Mudgal
S S Bhatnagar
EDITORIAL
The Indian economy has been growing from strength to
strength and is expected to grow by 9% in 2010-11
against 6.7% in 2008-09 & 7.4% in 2009-10. It is
encouraging to see future projections that the economy
shall continue to be robust and grow in double digits in
the next few years.
All indicators and authentic data show that the demand
for steel will substantially grow from Infrastructure,
Construction, Automobile & White goods sectors. These
are all on an upswing and are supporting the consumption
and demand of steel which is projected to steadily and
strongly rise. Though the statistics forecast a promising
future for the Indian Sponge Iron Industry, the ride may not be so smooth in the
near to long term.
In 2010,the Sponge Iron Industry faced unprecedented problems and struggled
with sharp input cost increases with unmatched selling prices thereby putting
tremendous pressure on the financial viability of most units. The situation has not
changed much. The supplies of vital inputs namely Iron Ore, Coal and to some
extent Natural Gas have been affected both in terms of availability & prices. To
add to the hardships of Sponge Iron Manufacturers, poor infrastructure support is
also increasing costs thereby putting further pressure and affecting the bottomline.
We all know India has sufficient Iron Ore & Non Coking Coal based on which huge
investments were made and large number of coal based units were established
thereby making India the largest producer of sponge iron in the world. These
inputs have now become a matter of serious concern. No doubt availability of
natural gas is expected to improve in next 3-4 years but effective pricing policy
here will play a very important role.
The Indian Sponge Iron Industry is a very cost effective, efficient and high
performance sector which is now passing through very critical times. With no clear
cut policy initiatives from the Government for the sustained supply of the essential
inputs, survival of the Industry is at stake, to meet the fast growing demands of
quality metaliks by secondary steel sector in terms of National Steel Policy.
SIMA has been regularly taking up the hardships being faced by the Industry with
the Government authorities who are fully aware of the situation. However on this
front very little has been done by the government to ensure raw materials availability
in adequate quantities & affordable prices particularly Iron Ore.
We are confident that with constant representations and through regular high level
interactions, the Government will have to take some positive measures to give the
much needed boost to the sponge iron sector which is the backbone of the
secondary steel production.
A study is being done by Ernst & Young on future sustainability of the Industry in
collaboration with Tata Sponge. The report is likely to be ready by February, 2011
and shall bring to light lot of facts for the consideration of the members and for
making further recommendations to the Government.
We sincerely hope that as in the past with your active participation and full support
to SIMA the year 2011 shall usher in new prospects and prosperity.
Wishing you and your family a very happy, bright, prosperous and fruitful
business like 2011.
S S BHATNAGAR

During CY’2009, India accounted for 35% of global
Sponge Iron production and once again, it has
occupied the top slot for the past eight consecutive
years, for being the largest producer of sponge iron
across the globe.
The Indian sponge iron industry has come a long
way but instead of resting on its laurels it is looking
steady and subsequently focusing on broadening its
scope of growth. With the country’s strong economic
environment poised for an upturn, the industry
prospects are certainly bright in time to come.
However there are immense challenges ahead for
the industry. The sponge Iron industry is highly
fragmented. Growth of gas based sponge iron, which
is critical to growth of value added steel segment is
constrained by high cost curve mainly due to pricing
of natural gas and DR grade iron Ore ( key raw
materials used for gas based sponge iron) and non
coking coal ( key raw material for coal based sponge
iron) . As high price of raw material impacts the bottom
line of sponge iron producers making it unviable
compare to other metalliks.
Currently iron ore market is unquestionably in a state
of flux, as everyone who opens a paper or watches
the business news is aware, iron ore prices have been
violently volatile. This very volatility is in large part
what killed off the decades old annual price contracts
which dominated the iron ore trade. This year the
annual contract was announced officially dead and a
quarterly price formula was introduced based on spot
prices in the preceding months.
This shift in price model of iron ore trade in year 2010,
has completely messed up the growth of global steel
industry and India is no exception. Steel industry
being cyclic in nature, the good period benefit under
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
this new price model is now
being exploited by the miners by
regulating their iron ore price
under quarterly mechanism.
These basic issues will have to
be addressed if we want a vibrant
and viable sponge iron sector.
Our immediate task will be to
tackle the problem of poor availability and
unprecedented price hike of iron ore, which is in
complete disparity with the finished steel prices.
Concurrently, given the large coal-based capacity that
already exists – the coal and coal mining sectors need
to be given a substantial boost.
Then there are the other endemic infrastructure
constraints- by way of power availability, cost, severe
transportation bottlenecks, lack of port infrastructures,
shortage of railway rakes etc.
Clearly, we are talking about the need for a very
comprehensive approach. Every factor impinging on
the Steel industry right from raw material to energy
to transportation needs to be addressed for
sustainable growth of Indian sponge iron industry.
SIMA has been taking these issues with the
government at various forums. SIMA role has been
of facilitator and providing solutions and a link
between its members and govt. As different problems
have different solutions but the ultimate objective
should be to nullify barriers and to increase efficiency,
productivity and growth.
Wishing you a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year
V S BAPNA
JANUARY-2011/1

UPGRADING QUALITY OF INPUTS TO AUGMENT THE VIABILITY OF
COAL BASED SPONGE IRON SECTOR IN INDIA
It is an acknowledged fact that the plant availability
in Indian Sponge Iron Sector has been under strain
due to inconsistent supply of raw materials like iron
ore and non-coking coal, both quantitatively and
qualitatively. In view of this there is a strong case to
plead for:
a. Earmarking rich grade iron ore deposits to
clusters of sponge iron plants.
b. Providing right incentives towards utilization of
low grade iron ore fines on large scale through
adequate beneficiation & pelletizing facilities.
c. Priority allocation of high grade non-coking Coal
Blocks to sponge iron plants with an overriding
consideration that such blocks serve the purpose
of power generation also through waste heat
gases of sponge iron kilns.
d. Ensuring better grade coal linkages to sponge
iron plants in the absence of allocation of Coal
Blocks, and
e. Putting up state-of-the-art coal washeries to
beneficiate mined coal/linkages to prepare coal
of right specification for feeding to sponge iron
plants.
Sponge Iron in India : Production Scenario
There has been an inspiring track record of growth
of sponge iron industry in India during the last
decade. Today India is the global leader as the largest
producer of sponge iron.
The following are recently recorded production
figures:-
Year Production of TotalA + B
Sponge Iron (in Million
(in Million Tons) Tons)
Gas Coal
Based Based
A B
2008 - 09 5.28 16.05 21.33
2009 - 10 6.17 16.82 22.99
Source : SIMA
B. L. Agrawal, Managing Director, Godawari Power & Ispat Limited
In view of significantly high level of production,
Sponge Iron has become now a key ingredient for
secondary steel making.
While enhancing the production of sponge iron
through gas based route is quite restricted owing to
limited availability of gas, our mainstay would be coal
based sponge iron.
The impediments of Indian Sponge Iron Industry
Presently the sponge iron industry in India is
constrained due to:-
1. Low metallization of DRI because of relatively low
grade iron ore available in the market.
2. Short campaign life of DRI Kilns due to the use
of low grade iron ore compounded with higher
ash content of linked non-coking coal.
3. Generation of high volume of ash and coal char
in DRI process posing threat to environment, and
4. Generation of substantial sponge iron fines
particularly where soft iron ore is used.
Iron Ore for Sponge Iron production:-
While there are adequate reserves of iron ore, our
infrastructural supports are not geared to meet the
demand of DRI plants. Excessive fines are generated
in the process of crushing iron ore to produce the
required size range of calibrated lumps. These fines
are not gainfully utilized and presently exported at
throw away prices. To enhance our resource base
the solution lies in beneficiating the fines to above
65% Fe content and pelletizing the same.
Pelletization is the agglomeration of very fine, often
beneficiated, raw materials with spherical products
of preferably 9 – 16 mm diameter with defined
properties for use in DRI kilns.
Briefly, the Pelletization process consists of
i. Feed Preparation
ii. Green Ball Production
JANUARY-2011/2

iii. Green ball induration by drying, pre heating &
firing, and
iv. Cooling of hardened pellets.
Such pellets would have the following advantages
over raw iron ore:-
l The rotary kiln can produce about 20% more
without any changes in design.
l Specific consumption of coal will come down by
about10%
l Campaign life will increase substantially to the
tune of about 50%
l As there will be no accretion and no fused lump
formation, the refractory repairing cost will be
reduced by 50%
l Metallization will be better compared to a situation
where lump ore is used.
l There will be less fines in the finished product..
l There are no losses of handling iron ore, as
pellets will not break during transport or
handling,and
l There will be better working environment.
Before pelletizing the iron ore fines, it is essential
that a suitable beneficiation plant is put up adopting
a process flow sheet based on the following test work
to optimize the degree of combination of gravimetric
and magnetic separation processes.
l Chemical analysis of the samples (Fe(t), FeO,
, P, LOI)
SiO ,Al O
2 2 3
l Weight percentage size fraction wise.
l Sizing of the – 38um material using ultrasonic
bath screening at 20um, 10um & 5um.
l Bulk density and specific gravity determination
l Density characterization of the – 32+8 mm and –
8+0.15 mm material using the Mineral Density
Separator (MDS)
l Heavy Liquid Separation test work on the – 32+8
mm and – 8+1 mm material
l Elutriator (hindered setting) test work on – 1+0.15
mm and – 0.15 mm fractions
l Compressive and tensile strength
l Bond work indices
l Angle of Repose
l Magnetic susceptibility
l Flotation on the fine material, if required, and
l Mineralogical evaluation of sample to understand
the liberation characteristics of the material
A typical feed specification and product specification
in case of iron ore beneficiation plant appears at
Annexure – 1.
In this context it is also pleaded that a part of rich
grade iron ore deposits provide dedicated linkages
to sponge iron plants, as many of these are
graduating to mini steel plants filling a significant void
of shortfall in production through primary steel sector.
Annexure-2 and Annexure-3 furnish general
flowsheets of iron ore beneficiation and pelletising
plants.
Non-Coking Coal for sponge iron plants
The properties of non-Coking Coal which are relevant
for use in sponge iron making are:-
a. Parameters related to Proximate Analysis:-
Ash

There is acute shortage of high grade non-coking
coal like ‘B’/’C’ grade suitable for making sponge
iron. These units by sheer compulsion use low grade
(‘F’ grade) coal due to non-availability of right linkages
of coal of superior grade.
To ensure that sponge iron plants get the right type
of coal, quality Coal Blocks should be earmarked for
ANNEXURE - 1
IRON ORE BENEFICIATION PLANT
TYPICAL FEED & PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS
sponge iron clusters. It is strongly recommended to
use the beneficiated coal by bringing the ash level
below 25%. This is possible by employing state-ofthe-art
technology of coal washing using dense
media cyclone circuit.
Feed Specification Product Specification
Fe: 59.06% Fe:>65%
SiO : 5.88% SiO :

ANNEXURE - 3
General flow diagram of a Pelletizing Plant
With best complements from
RAYEN STEELS PRIVATE LIMITED
Head Office
19, Guru Nivas, Aishwarya Colony, Cantonment, Bellary 583 104
Phone: 08392 245080/243431 Fax: 08392 243446
Email: rayen@rayensteels.com
Works
Sy. 1115 D&E, Haraginadoni Road,
Veniveerpur Village, Bellary District, Karnataka
Phone: 094495 98785/094495 98788
JANUARY-2011/5

SUCCESSFUL STARTUP AND OPERATION OF HYL ENERGIRON ZR
MICRO-MODULE AT GSPI IN ABU DHABI
Thomas M. Scarnati, Manager (Mktg. & Sales)
Tenova HYL, Mexico
The world’s first Micro-Module is now in full operation
at Gulf Sponge Iron, LLC in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This
new plant is designed to produce 200,000 tons per
year of highly metallized, high carbon DRI, and opens
the door for interesting possibilities for the Indian DRI
market.
The tendency in the direct reduction industry has
been for plants to grow in capacity to take advantage
of economies of scale. This is evident in new
ENERGIRON plants – the two modules at Emirates
Steel are each of 1.6 million tpa capacity in single
modules, although the first module has already
proven to be able to produce close to 2.0 million tons
per year. The plants under construction at Ezz Steel
and Suez Steel in Egypt are of 1.9 million tons per
year capacity, and new projects are under way in
different regions with similar sized plants as well as
plants with capacities of 2.5 million annual tons in a
single unit.
For the small steelmaker, this is of little consequence
since steel mills with capacities of under 1 million
annual tons of liquid steel cannot justify the
investment for such a large DRI facility. For this
reason, Tenova HYL developed the Micro-Module
concept – a high efficiency, low cost DR module for
producing 200,000 metric tons per year of high quality,
high carbon DRI. In fact, the Indian market was taken
specifically into account when designing this type of
plant. Since India has a widespread coal-based DR
industry that caters to the small steelmakers and to
the commercial markets for DRI, it is the major market
where such a small plant can be a viable option. The
environmental problems associated with current coalbased
DR plants in India make it necessary to
consider a technology shift to satisfy the demand for
DRI, but with clean, more efficient technology.
The Micro-Module is a unique concept in today’s
industry, designed for small iron and steel making
production facilities but at an investment cost per ton
of product that is in line with that of much larger
installations.
GSPI Micro-Module provides high carbon DRI in
a small capacity module
The first of this type of plant was built and put into
operation for Al-Nasser Industries at their GSPI plant
in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The concept is an Energiron ZR
plant configuration with no gas reformer and a
compact, efficient plant design to produce DRI of
e”94% metallization and carbon typically around
3.6%. The investment cost, despite the small size of
the plant, is only slightly above the capex per ton of
capacity as that of a large (>1.0 million tpa) plant.
While the Micro-Module is of higher capital investment
than the current coal-based plants used in India, it
offers not only more capacity but also clean operation,
higher quality, higher commercial prices for the
product since demand is greater, and is an investment
which will pay for itself in a short number of years.
Additionally, it complies with the strictest
environmental regulations and the possibility of
having CO as a saleable by-product and/or as CO -
2
2
credits.
Gulf Sponge Iron Micro-Module DRI Plant at
Mussafah, Abu Dhabi, UAE
JANUARY-2011/6

GSPI Plant Configuration
The GSPI plant was designed to use both iron ore
lump and pellet feed, in any combination up to 100%
of either material. The current feedstock is GIIC
pellet.
The design is based on the ZR or reformerless
process developed by Tenova HYL, in which the insitu
reforming, reduction and carburization reactions
occur within the reduction shaft. By eliminating the
need for an external natural gas/steam reformer, the
plant is able to be designed for a much smaller area
and requires less equipment. The ZR process allows
the use of any hydrocarbon reducing agent, either
direct feeding of natural gas, or – if available or
convenient – the use of syngas or COG is possible.
GSPI commissioned the plant in March 2010. The
core reduction plant was provided by Tenova HYL,
in partnership with Electrotherm India Ltd. and
including various sub-suppliers, i.e., the CO Removal
2
System was designed by BASF, detail engineering
was supplied by SNC Lavalin and Civil engineering
was under the charge of MN Dastur.
The plant includes basically, the DR reactor, process
gas heater, recycle gas compressor, cooling gas
ejector, CO2 removal system, water systems,
material handling system and distributed control
system (DCS). The GSPI plant is also equipped with
a complete laboratory for Process Quality Control.
Power supply for the plant is 11 KV and 6.6 KV fed
from the ESL supply feeder, with a 220 KV supply
line for power requirements for lighting, air
conditioning and minor equipment needs. There is
also a 350 KVA supply for emergency standby power
for utilities and critical pumps when needed.
The water requirements for the plant are 750 m 3
per
day, and the plant has a reservoir capacity of 2000
m 3
, with water being sourced from Abu Dhabi
Distribution Company (ADDC).
GSPI Performance
Since the plant entered full operation, the product
quality has in all cases been better than the
guaranteed or expected levels in both chemical and
physical properties. This can be seen in Tables 1
and 2 comparing actual results to the plant guarantee
figures. In July of 2010 the plant successfully
completed its performance test, exceeding
parameters in all aspects and is now in full operation
mode. Performance during the test averaged 27 tons
per hour of high quality, high carbon DRI, with
metallization levels of 91 to 95% and carbon content
from 3.1 to 4.0% as iron carbide.
Current operation since startup has been with 100%
pellet feedstock from GIIC. The plan is to begin use
of a mix of lump ore with pellets in the near future,
with the aim of reducing overall iron ore costs for the
plant, since it is already proven that HYL Energiron
process plants can easily use lump ore in any
proportion up to 100% lump ore charges. The high
carbon DRI product is being used at the adjacent
meltshop (Emirates Steel Co.), also owned by the Al
Nasser Group.
Guaranteed Actual
Fe(T) % 90 Min 91
Fe(M) % 84 Min 85.5
Metallization % 93 Min 94
Carbon % 3 + 0.2 3.2
Sulfur % 0.015 Max. 0.005
Phosphorous % 0.045 Max 0.035
Table 1. – GSPI Direct Reduced Iron Chemical
Properties
Properties DRI
Size + 25 mm 2% Max
- 25 + 3 mm 93%
- 3 mm 5% Max
Bulk Density 1.7 to 1.8 T/M 3
target Actual
Sulfur % 0.015 Max. 0.005
Phosphorous % 0.045 Max 0.035
Table 2. – GSPI Direct Reduced Iron Physical
Properties
JANUARY-2011/7

GSPI Micro-Module Control Room
Gulf Sponge Iron Micro-Module DRI Plant
at Mussafah, Abu Dhabi, UAE
GSPI Quality Control Laboratory
JANUARY-2011/8

JANUARY-2011/9

SPONGE IRON INDUSTRY –PAST-PRESENT-FUTURE
S.C. KHATTOI, Managing Director
PROJECT AND ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY, ODISHA
Way back in 1980 sponge iron industry entered in to
Indian market as an alternate route of steel making.
India having good quality iron ore and non coking
coal, the Sponge Iron process got stabilised with time.
The standard size of coal base plant used to be 300
to 350 tons per day and 0.1mt per year. The plant
cost used to be high due to some imported
components used in the kiln & cooler. Gas base DRI
plants using shaft kilns came closer to gas source in
the west coast. The production capacity of single gas
base units used to be two million tons per year &
investment used to be very high. Hence limited
number of gas based shaft kiln came in to existence.
The main focus came to coal based sponge iron
plants. Designers increased the capacity from 300tpd
to 500tpd for each kiln by increasing the equipments
size but the project cost still remained high. Lurgi’s
pilot plant of 100tpd at Andhra Pradesh, which was
set for testing Indian raw material, produced
30,000tons per annum. This small size became a
viable model without having pollution control
equipment in the off gas system. Some old cement
kilns were modified to sponge iron units at a much
lower cost. Then started mushrooming of Sponge
Industries all over India. It is either nearer to iron ore
source or coal source. The pollution level remained
very high and was viewed leniently by government
officials considering the new technology and
industrial growth of the country. The higher capacity
plants had ESP or Quencher scrubber as pollution
control measure for their waste gas from the
installation stage. Smaller plants even though
installed the Pollution control equipments much latter
like ESP and bag filters, still sponge iron units are
considered as highly polluting industries to-day.
Rotary kiln method became predominated in coal
based sponge iron units. There are only few rotary
kilns which have the capability to use coal, oil and
gas individually or in combination. One major
technological development was introduced by the
author in the early days is to feed coal from discharge
end by means of lean phase pneumatic conveying.
The fresh carbon from discharge end coal helped to
stabilize the process. It increased the kiln capacity
by reducing coal quantity from the feed end which
made space for iron ore. Presently this coal injection
is a part of the whole system. Use of iron ore fines
from 2mm to 6mm was also injected from discharge
end. The maximum capacity went up to 2 tons per
hour through dense phase conveying and it was
discontinued after one year due to vigilant process
control requirements.
The raw material like iron ore, coal, limestone,
dolomite used to tumble inside the kiln from 6.0Hours
to 10.0Hours at 1050º C. The size of the raw material
and its mean particle size became a major factor as
smaller kilns have a retention time of 6.0 Hours.
Different size kilns optimised their raw material sizes
depending upon the residence time inside the kiln.
As the raw material and product both used to tumble
inside the kiln and cooler, a lot of fines are generated.
To reduce the fines generation, the selection of raw
material became stringent. Ore was selected on the
basis of its higher tumbling index, meaning hard and
massive ore. The minimum Fe content was fixed as
65% and tested for its reducibility character.
Magnetite ore was rejected due to its structure as
Fe3O4 and required a higher temperature for
reduction. Considering all the required properties,
specific iron ores are declared as sponge grade and
restricted its use in the blast furnace. Similarly
selection of coal was done mainly on ash fusion
temperature and fixed carbon; the other properties
considered are its reactivity, volatile matter & sulphur
content. Good steam coal of B & C grade was
declared as metallurgical coal for sponge iron
making. Government was requested to preserve
similar coal for metallurgical use rather than using it
in boilers of power plants and railway steam engines.
At the beginning the iron ore size used to be +6mm
to -40mm. Due to process optimisation the size
reduced to 25mm from 40mm in few years time and
remained for some period. Then the size changed
to 22mm and afterwards to 20mm and continued with
JANUARY-2011/10

it. Smaller kiln preferred the size to be maximum
16mm where as bigger kiln at 20mm. since the upper
limit drastically reduced, the fines(-6mm) generation
in crushing went up to 40% while producing
calibrated ore ( +6 to -16mm). To increase the
usability of ore, the lower cut off line changed to
+5mm instead of +6mm. Hence the main calibrated
ore produced by the crushing unit became +5mm to
– 16mm OR +5mm to -20mm depending up on the
requirement and the fines generation came down to
35%. Different crushing methods were adopted and
cone crushers were used to further bring down the
fines (-5mm) generation below 35%. Even with all
those high set parameters, iron ore cost still remained
much lower in comparison to coal cost. It used to be
a buyers market for iron ore.
High grade steam coal was available at the beginning
of the sponge iron industries but with increasing
number of units, there were shortage of high coal.
Getting linkage from Coal India became difficult.
Necessity being the mother of invention, trial started
with E & F grade coal. The process became
successful, at the cost of product quantity. A 100tpd
plant produced 80tpd and a campaign life of 60 to
90days. The cost of E & F grade coal being low and
availability is high; it opened a new scenario for
industries survival. Coal Washery became a
necessity to improve the coal quality from E & F
grade. Some units installed hydraulic Batac Jigs to
up grade the coal by gravity separation. Many
merchant coal washeries came into existence for up
grading the E & F grade coal for sponge iron kilns.
The washery used- heavy media separation, Hydro
cyclone, Hydro zigging, pneumatic zigging, x-ray and
gamma ray shorting methods. The main recovery
used to be low, the middling went to power plants
and the rejects for land filling. The cost of washed
coal in a washery became high without rejects being
used in the power plant. All the options remained
with the user including the availability of imported
coal to make it cost effective.
At the beginning in 1984 the profit margin in sponge
industry was very low as scrap is the major raw
material for arc and induction furnaces. The use of
sponge iron in the furnaces increased slowly, the
price picked up so is the profit margin. The sales
price of sponge iron got linked to scarp and it varied
depending upon scrap market. The average profit
margin remained for some time until mines owners
started their own sponge iron industry. The
profitability from mines to sponge became clear to
them. They decided to transfer the profit from sponge
industry to iron ore mines. Then the cost of iron ore
started shooting up. It exceeded much more than
coal cost and merchant sponge manufacturers had
difficulties in keeping the plant running. Then started
the forward and backward integration of individual
units for their survival but this industry never
remained lucrative any more. Power plant from the
waste heat became a silver lining for all sponge
industries. Sale of power to grid or use in own steel
melting unit kept the plants rolling. Power sale
through national grid was more beneficial than selling
to local distributors which have a low tariff rate.
In the recent past years steel market shoot up very
high so is the sponge iron rate. But mines owner
linked the ore price to sponge price which again
affected the profitability of the unit. The main profit
went to the mines owner. If the cost of making the
calibrated ore from mines is within Rs 2000/-per ton,
the sales price went up to Rs 5000/-per ton. The
financial stability of each mine owner became very
high and ore being a non perishable item they
dictated the terms. The buyers market changed to a
sellers market. Government having no control over
the sales price, again the merchant sponge iron unit
became sick. To over-come the situation, low grade
iron ore having 62 to 63% Fe content which was once
a rejected material became the main raw material.
Some plants started using soft ore of +10mm to -
40mm considering the ore will break in tumbling
inside the kiln to smaller sizes and reduce to Fe
metallic. As the price of this ore being low, it gave
some profit margin at the cost of sacrificing the
campaign life. This process continued for some time
until the same practice adopted by many plants and
the mines owner increased the ore price.
To day all the Sponge Iron plants are becoming sick
as iron ore price are high. Coal prices have also gone
up due to Coal India policy. Availability of good coal
and iron ore is scarce and prices are very high. The
sales price of sponge iron is low. Iron ore fines cost
JANUARY-2011/11

JANUARY-2011/12

is relatively low since it is monitored by export market.
The grade of iron ore fines has also gone down from
65% Fe to 55% Fe. The alternate route for survival
is beneficiation and pelletisation from low grade fines.
In present scenario there are many pellet plants
which are coming up with higher capacity. Some of
them are already commissioned and some of them
are under construction. After commissioning of all
the plants, there may be short fall of iron ore fines
for pellet making, without any export. It is presumed
that the ore fines availability is likely to go up more
than 28.8 million tons produced last year. As the
demand for ore fines will increase, the prices are
likely to go up. Many mines have already reached
the level where the mining product is more of fines
and blue dust than lumpy ore. They themselves are
putting up pellet plants. So the same story of sponge
iron industry is likely to repeat.
The choice left is to beneficiate the ore fines. The
lumps from mines is crushed to produce the
calibrated ore and it should go to the kiln directly.
Fines generated in the process of crushing should
go for beneficiation. After the beneficiation the iron
ore powder becomes concentrate and requires
agglomeration as pellet or briquette for further use.
But instead producing indurate pellet and then
converting it to sponge iron, it is better to convert
directly to sponge iron through tunnel kiln or rotary
hearth furnace. The process of tunnel kiln and rotary
hearth furnace are different but both use coal for
reduction and coal producer gas for heating. The
energy used in Pellet making is around 30 lit per ton
which is saved when direct sponge is produced in
tunnel kiln from the ore concentrate or ore powder
from mines. Tunnel kiln product is more suitable for
induction and arc furnaces where as Rotary hearth
furnace product is more suitable for arc furnaces.
The Tunnel kiln technology and rotary hearth furnace
technology is already in the market and will be
starting in India very soon.
The Itmk3 which produces iron nugget has started
since 2004 and has successfully produced this year.
There are few modifications carried out this year to
declare it as commercial plant. Itmk3 will have an
edge over rotary hearth furnace. The further
development in rotary hearth furnace is to transport
the hot sponge iron in to the melting furnace or to
make HBI instead of cooling it.
The HISMELT is a continuously process of directly
melting iron ore fines up to 100micrones. It has a
minimum capacity of 8,00,000 tons per year. It
operates with semi- anthracite coal and to produce
one ton liquid metal it require 1.7 t of ore with 62%
Fe , 700kg coal , 260 m³ oxygen, 4-5 m³ water, 32
to 35 MW power and 100 to 150kg of lime or dolomite
which is directly melted in the SRV (Smelter
Reduction Vessel) furnace. The plant can generate
30-35 MW power from its waste heat. When 50%
Indian coal having 25% ash is mixed with 50%
imported coal and used in the SRV without pre heater
then the capacity reduces to 0.36 mtpy. The HI-Smelt
process has got a promising future.
Apart from much other process, Midrex is going to
put a synthetic gas plant from coal and a vertical
shaft kiln to produce sponge iron. The plant is very
much capital intensive. The other process like Energy
Iron and Oxycup smelter use iron ore fines to produce
the liquid metal. They will also enter to the market
soon.
In future the plants which have either iron ore mines
or coal block will survive and others will have hard
time to continue. This scenario was well visualised
10 years back which has become the reality of today.
JANUARY-2011/13

From a meager production of 1.31 million tons
of sponge iron in 1991-92 to present production
level of sponge iron of over 22 million tons in
2009, where world DRI production reached
64.4 million tons, India once again, led all
nations for consecutively 8th year in sponge
iron production with more than one-third of the
world total production of 64.4 million tones.
Indian production of sponge iron has continued
its steady increase in recent years.
Approximately seventy percent of this is via
coal-based DR units and 30% via gas-based.
Three producers operate gas-based DRI and
HBI plants, with a combined capacity of
approximately 6MMT/yr, significantly lower
than coal-based plants, although with much
higher productive capacity and productivity per
plant. There have been historical reasons in
India for the prosperity of coal-based DRI
production over gas-based: India does not
have ample reserves of natural gas, and what
is currently available is mainly on the west
coast. Coal, on the other hand, is abundant
and lower grade coals can be used without
difficulty. In terms of capital cost, a coal based
DR unit is generally small in capacity and can
be installed and operated with a much smaller
investment.
VARIOUS TECHNOLOGIES FOR SPONGE
IRON PRODUCTION
Globally there are two types of technologies
available for producing sponge iron.
l Coal based
l Gas based
GAS BASED SPONGE IRON INDUSTRY – OUTLOOK
Ravindra S Borwankar, Asst. Vice President (Mktg.) Welspun Maxsteel Ltd.
In the Coal based, coal is the reductant while
in Gas based natural gas is used to reduce
the iron ore. For coal based rotary Kiln
processes several technologies like SL/RN,
CODIR, ACCAR, JINDAL,TDR and OSIL are
in use while gas based plants have
predominantly used MIDREX,HYL I and III
technologies. As Natural gas is not available
in many parts of the world, the growth of coal
based plants have increased in those countries
like India (where natural gas is available to a
limited extent) where there is abundance of
non coking coal and good grade Iron ore.
Source : Midrex tech.
Figure I: Break up of world Sponge iron production
by process
JANUARY-2011/14

Figure I clearly depicts the break up of world
sponge iron industry in 2009. It is clearly
evident that the % share of gas based sponge
iron industry is much higher vis-à-vis coal
based sponge iron industry. Globally gas
based technology is prevailing and coal based
sponge iron industry is primarily from India
MIDREX – Technology – Gas based sponge iron
(mainly due to abundant availability of non
coking coal).
MAJOR SPONGE IRON TECHNOLOGY
GAS BASED - MIDREX
- HYL III / Energiron
COAL BASED - SL / RN
The MIDREX® Process consists of three major stages: 1) reduction, 2) reforming and 3) heat
recovery.
Reduction
Iron oxide, in pellet or lump form, is introduced
through a proportioning hopper at the top of
the shaft furnace. As the ore descends through
the furnace by gravity flow, it is heated and
the oxygen is removed from the iron (reduced)
by counter flowing gases which have a high
H2 and CO content. These gases react with
the Fe2O3 in the iron ore and convert it to
metallic iron, leaving H2O and CO2. For
production of cold DRI, the reduced iron is
cooled and carburized by counter flowing
cooling gases in the lower portion of the shaft
furnace. The DRI can also be discharged hot
and fed to a briquetting machine for production
of HBI, or fed hot, as HDRI, directly to an EAF,
as in the HOTLINK® System.
Reforming
To maximize the efficiency of reforming, off gas
from the shaft furnace is recycled and blended
with fresh natural gas. This gas is fed to the
reformer, a refractory-lined furnace containing
alloy tubes filled with catalyst. The gas is
heated and reformed as it passes through the
JANUARY-2011/15

tubes. The newly reformed gas, containing 90-
92 percent H2 and CO, is then fed hot directly
to the shaft furnace as reducing gas.
Heat Recovery
The thermal efficiency of the MIDREX®
Reformer is greatly enhanced by the heat
recovery system. Sensible heat is recovered
from the reformer flue gas to preheat the feed
gas mixture, the burner combustion air and the
natural gas feed. In addition, depending on the
economics, the fuel gas may also be preheated
Process Advantage
l World Wide commercial use
l Proven performance
l Raw material flexibility
l CO2 reformer eliminates need for steam system,
reformed gas quench, reducing gas heating and
CO2 removal system.
HYL - Technology – Gas based Sponge iron
The HYL plants operate with iron ore, iron oxide
pellets or mixture of the Two and natural gas.
The main equipment of HYL-III comprises a
DR shaft furnace, a gas reformer, and a gas
reheater. The principles of operation of the
furnace are similar to the midrex shaft furnace
described previously.
Continuously descending iron- bearing
material is reduced in an upper zone by the
counter current flow of gas, which is rich in
carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Reduction is
accomplished by reaction of the reducing gas
which is introduced through a distribution
system around the circumference of the shaft
at an intermediate height.
A proper selection of iron oxide feed stock
permit operation at 950 °C. After reduction, the
hot DRI continues to descend through a
constant pressure zone, which separates the
upper reducing zone from the lower cooling
JANUARY-2011/16

zone. The DRI is cooled to below 50°C by an
independent gas stream. The cooling gas is
withdrawn at the top of the cooling zone, after
cooling, cleaning and compressing. This gas
is recirculated at the bottom of the shaft
furnace. The composition and temperature of
gas flow to the shaft furnace are carefully
controlled to permit independent control of the
metallization and carbon content of the DRI. It
is claimed that a high reduction temperature
and the formation of an iron carbide shell
protect the DRI from spontaneous re oxidation
. Like Midrex , there is provision for hot
briquetting facilities in the system.
The HYL III shaft furnace operates at about
54 kg/cm 2 (5atm) for this reason, the design
incorporates special pressure lock system for
charging iron oxide feed materials at the roof
and for discharging cold DRI at the bottom.
Possible advantages of high pressure
operation are enhanced reduction kinetics,
higher gas throughput, and condensation at
elevated pressure which lowers the moisture
SL/RN technology for Coal based sponge
iron
content of the re circulated top gas. Insofar as
reducing gas is concerned, the HYL IlI process
employs catalytic steam reforming of natural
gas. As in the original HYL process excess
steam is used, the reformed gas is cooled to
condense water, which increases the carbon
monoxide plus hydrogen content to a high
percentage .The sensible energy of the
reformed gas is recovered during cooling by
heat exchangers to the steam system. The
usual heat recovery system in the flue gas
stack of the reformer and gas re heater is also
used. The cold reformed gas is mixed with
compressed top gas from the shaft furnace
This top gas had previously been processed
to remove a substantial part of its moisture and
particulates. The mixed reducing gas is then
reheated and introduced in to the shaft furnace
along with natural gas, excess shaft furnace
of gas (over that amount re circulated the
process) is used as fuel in the reformer and
gas heater.
JANUARY-2011/17

Process Advantage
l Proven performance
l Raw material flexibility
l Conventional steam reforming
l Selective elimination of H2O & CO2 from the
reducing gas circuit allows maximum recycling
of reducing gases to the reduction reactor
l High pressure operation reducing circulating gas
volumetric flow at high molar
l Flexibility to generate electric power by high
pressure steam produced in the reformer.
The SL/RN process is a kiln based process
that uses lump ore, pellets, beach sand or
ilemnite ore and solid carbon to produce hot
or cold DRI. The process operates at high
temperature and atmospheric pressure. This
is the most widely used coal based direct
reduction process.
Process Description
The iron oxides feed to a SL/RN kiln is in the
form of lump or pellet iron ore , reductant (
low cost non –coking coal) and limestone or
dolomite ( to absorb sulfur present in the
reductant) .The rotary kiln is inclined downward
from the feed ( elevated end) to the discharge
end . The discharge end is provided with a
burner to be used for startup or to inject
reductant. Typical retention time are around
10 hrs. The kiln is divided into 2 process
regions ; preheat and reduction . In the preheat
section , the charge is heated to about 1000C
, free moisture is first driven off and reduction
to FeO occurs . As the reductant is heated ,
volatile components are released and part of
the gases are burnt in freeboard above the bed
by the air injected into the kiln. This combustion
transfers heat to the charge directly by
radiation , and also by conductive heat transfer
from the kiln lining , which is first exposed to
the flame and heated before contacting the
charge. The charge then passes into the
metallization or reduction zone ,where the
temperature is maintained at about 1100C ,
depending upon the types of charge used. The
final metallization is about 88% and carbon is
about 0.1 – 0.2% .
Process advantages
l Use of any iron bearing material
l Wide variety of reductants
l Proven DRI technology
l Economic production of DRI
New Capacity and Plants Under
Construction
Table below indicates the additional new
capacities coming up in gas based
technologies in the world .Approx 19.14 million
tones would be the capacity addition by 2012
-13 ( considering all the plants are completed
on time) . Midrex and HYL / Energiron are the
primary technologies mostly accepted in the
world. As per Midrex report numerous rotary
kiln furnaces would begin operation by 2012
as capacity would rise by 3.2 million tons per
year, almost all within India.
JANUARY-2011/18

C – Indicates under construction
Source : Midrex tech.
FUTURE OF GAS BASED SPONGE IRON
IN INDIA
So far growth of gas based sponge iron
industry in India has been stagnant with mainly
3 plants operating. Primary reasons for this
stagnancy are low availability and high pricing
of natural gas as compared to Middle East
countries, High initial capital investment etc.
High Priorities of allocating Natural Gas mainly
given to power, transport, fertilizer, domestic
users etc compared to Sponge iron industry.
This situation could, however, change in the
near future and natural gas based sponge iron
industry in India would have something to
cheer for. Looking at demand / supply gap of
natural gas, govt. of India is taking some
serious initiatives. Huge investments are
announced in laying down extensive pipeline
network for natural gas across the country to
meet the growing demand. As per map of India
below in annex I , highlighting the network of
natural gas pipeline ( existing , proposed and
future proposed ). As more gas lines become
available in time to come, definitely availability
of natural gas would not be a major area of
concern for sponge iron industry. Along with
this availability and by setting up some strong
policies framework by the Indian government
toward strengthening India’s gas based
sponge iron industry, natural gas and
alternative natural gas based technologies of
DRI production could experience a boom in
India. Also, considering the environmental
issues, which Indian and global steel industry
is facing, natural gas based sponge iron will
certainly be the metallic of future. This metallic
will certainly redefine the steel industry from
being a polluting to nonpolluting industry in the
time to come.
JANUARY-2011/19

Annexure I
Map of Natural Gas pipeline
Source : Petroleum and natural gas regulatory board – India
JANUARY-2011/20

REPORT ON SIMA DELEGATION TO CHINA 14-10 NOVEMBER 2010
A nine member SIMA delegation led by Mr. B L
Agrawal, Vice Chairman and Mr. S S Bhatnagar,
Executive Director visited China during 14-19
November 2010 to explore alternative technology
options for sponge iron making. The objective was
to evaluate the technologies that utilize iron ore fines
and are pollution free. Two technology routes, viz
Rotary Hearth Furnace (RHF) and Tunnel Kiln
process were studied.
On 15 th
November the team visited Rizao Steel, the
second highest producer of liquid metal in private
sector in China. It has a capacity of 20 MT per year.
The steel plant generates lot of solid waste. They
have installed two nos of RHF. Each one is having a
input capacity of 2,00,000 tons per year iron bearing
waste material. Waste of coke ovens having carbon
bearing material is used along with the other waste.
One furnace was under maintenance and the second
one had gone for a forced shutdown on the previous
night due to fusion of briquettes inside the RHF.
All the iron bearing material is dried in a rotary drier
at 200 O
C. Dust from coke oven having 30% carbon
is added to the iron bearing dust in a proportation
and mixed thoroughly in a vertical mixture. Organic
binder is added in the vertical mixture. The output
from mixture machine is converted to briquettes in a
briquetting machine. Then these are transported by
a tubelar belt conveyor and fed to the RHF. The
briquettes are layered on the RHF moving bed. As
the bed rotates, the briquettes pass through a pre
heat zone & reduction zone, before getting
discharged to a rotary cooler by means of a screw
feeder. At this transition point nitrogen gas is
continuously charged for sealing.
The briquettes are cooled in the rotary cooler and
discharged to a pan conveyor at 100 O
C. It is then
transported in that metallic pan conveyor to the
storage bin where DRI fines and briquettes stored
separately.
On 16 th
November team went to China Iron & Steel
Research Institute Group (CISRI) along with Sinokiln.
There was a warm welcome by host CISRI. The main
point of discussion was on the raw materials as the
existing plant operates on steel plant waste material.
To check the Indian raw materials, CISRI wanted to
make all required tests in their laboratory and
accordingly design the RHF on payment basis. CISRI
have already designed another three nos of RHF
which are under construction in China. The capacity
of Rizao Steel single RHF as specified by CISRI is
1,50,000 tons to 1, 60,000 tons of DRI per year with
an input capacity of 2,00,000 tons per year.
The power consumption as mentioned was 10 MW
for two units and nitrogen consumption is 6600 NM/
hr. Nitrogen requirement for cooler sealing is 250
NM3/hr and rest Nitrogen is utilised for gas line
instrumentation etc.
On 17 th
November meeting was conducted in the
office of Sinokiln Engineering & Technology (Beijing)
Co. Ltd. along with CISRI Engineers. Commercial
terms and few technical issues were discussed.
Charging of hot DRI from RHF to furnace was
discussed. In the new design CISRI have given
provision for making HBI below the discharge of RHF
and in the future they will go for hot charging. They
are also considering to produce power from the waste
heat of RHF. The meeting was organized and
concluded with lunch hosted by Sinokiln.
On 18 th
three members went to see Tunel kiln of
CBRF Technology Group Co. Ltd. (CBRF) in
operation at Jinan along with Mr. Chand of Interglobal
Projects & Construction Co. (IPCC). Visit was
completed in the first half and they came back to
Beijing in the evening. On 19 th
morning there was
meeting with Mr. Chunlai Yang, Chairman CBRF. The
doubts on capacity were raised and it was clarified
that the Jinan plant can give 35,000 tons/year per
kiln with only ore fines with right mixture. To achieve
50,000 tons per year the kiln length needs to be
increased. Depending upon the raw materials and
other requirements the kiln can be modified/
redesigned to suit Indian raw material conditions.
From the visit it is now technically clear that for higher
capacity RHF is suitable and lower capacity tunnel
kiln is suitable. Project cost of RHF will be much higher
than Tunnel kiln. It is difficult to conclude the
production cost in RGF until actual trials are
completed.
Member delegates felt that SIMA to conduct similar
technical visits to other countries for the benefit and
exposure of their members.
JANUARY-2011/21

SIMA DELEGATE TO CHIN
JANUARY-2011/22

A 14-10 NOVEMBER 2010
JANUARY-2011/23

JANUARY-2011/24

TATA SPONGE RECEIVES CII – ORISSA IT
AWARDS FOR THE YEAR 2010
Sidheswar Jena, AGM(ITS) to the left and Bijayananda Das, Manager(Operation) to the right
receiving CII-IT Awards 2010 from Shri Mukul Somany, Chairman, CII (Eastern Region)
Tata Sponge has bagged CII – Orissa IT Awards 2010
for successful implementation and use of
eLOGBOOK(electronic logbook) software for process
control. The software has been developed in-house
by the Information Technology Department and
successfully deployed with the help of Operation
Department for the DRI process in all its 3 Kilns.
Coal based DRI plants often experience problems
with respect to formation of accretion resulting in
reduced production rate & shorter campaign life,
fluctuation in product quality, high coal consumption,
etc. The problem is compounded with deteriorating
quality of coal and iron ore particularly for
manufacturers compelled to use multiple sources of
raw materials with deteriorating and varying quality.
The operator is faced with frequent changes in the
input characteristics affecting process stability and
is required to often manipulate large number of
parameters to maintain a stable process condition,
which is a very difficult task.
eLOGBOOK software captures all data from
laboratory analysis, PLC systems, and SAP ERP
application into a single repository and provides
information such as user friendly queries, trends and
correlated trends, and critical process parameters online
to the operator for better process control. The
company has realized significant benefits from this
application as it evident from the marked
improvements in campaign lives & capacity
utilizations during 2009-10 which is being sustained
during the current financial year too.
JANUARY-2011/25

JANUARY-2011/26

7TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEET - OSIMA 2010
Seated from Left to Right : Sri N.K. Burma Director OSIMA, Sri P.L. Mohanty Chairman OSIMA, Sri. Raghunath
Mohanty Hon’ble Minister of Industries, Steel and Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Orissa as a
Chief Guest, Sri S.S. Bhatnagar, Executive Director SIMA
The 7th Annual General Meet was held in Hotel the
Crown at Bhubaneswar on 27th August 2010 at 11.00
AM. Sri. Raghunath Mohanty Hon’ble Minister of
Industries, Steel and Mines and Parliamentary Affairs,
Government of Orissa attended the AGM as Chief
Guest. Sri S.S. Bhatnagar, Executive Director SIMA
was the Guest of Honor in this function. Outgoing
Chairman Sri P.Mohanty attended the meeting. Sri
P.L. Mohanty Chairman OSIMA was on the chair
along with Director Sri N.K. Burma
Sri P.Mohanty outgoing Chairman gave the welcome
address.
Sri P.L.Mohanty Chairman, OSIMA delivered the key
note address.
Sri S.S. Bhatnagar, Executive Director SIMA spoke
on the present and future prospects of Sponge
Industry in the country. Sj. Raghunath Mohanty
Hon’ble Minister of Industries, Steel and Mines told
that the state of Odisha is having the distinction of
being the largest Sponge producer in the country.
He also told that as the future of the steel in the world
is very bright the importance of Sponge production
can’t be minimized. At the same time he assured the
house of all Govt. assistance to this sector as far as
practicable. He advised the Industry owners to
concentrate on social activities improve on plantation
and environmental building. Sri N.K. Burma Director,
OSIMA gave vote of thanks.
JANUARY-2011/27

CONTRIBUTION OF SECONDARY STEEL SECTOR IN INDIAN IRON
AND STEEL INDUSTRY - A PERSPECTIVE STUDY
Emergence of India as one of the very strong
economy is to a great extent led by the overall growth
of the steel segment, particularly the secondary steel
manufacturing segment. It is an era when India is
drawing focus for global investment in all important
sectors. Overseas steel giants are in the process of
setting up steel plants in India, while Indian corporate
is preparing to launch their respective dream projects
in the steel sector. The phenomenal domestic growth
of the secondary steel segment during the decade
practically created an unprecedented record.
However, with operational constraints and
government policy related problems the segment has
suffered frequent setbacks, despite the ups and
downs; the growth curb of steel segment had always
shown an upward trend. Thus, future of steel in India
awaits to unfold yet another phase of growth and
prosperity.
Focus of this article is to depict an outline of
secondary steel industry in India, entrepreneurship
of Indian entrepreneurs, favourable factors for growth
and the market receptiveness. The secondary
industry has witnessed upheavals and may also face
various other problems for raw materials,
incompatibility in logistics, state level restrictions etc.
but overall sustainability of the segment will receive
a boost in the perspective of recent growth in Iron
ore Pellet and Iron Ore Beneficiation. Practically top
line producers in this segment either have
implemented or in the process of implementing pellet
and iron ore beneficiation projects for their own
consumption and excess production to be marketed.
This development will result in easing number of
constraints. Availability of manufactured raw material
like iron ore pellets in adherence to industry
acceptable specification instead of mined ore and
beneficiated iron ore will not only ease the raw
Pradip Sen, Executive Director
Sree Metaliks Limited
material problems, it will be more logistic and
environment friendly.
When reviewed properly the Secondary Producers
Segment is quite diverse in terms of composition,
spread, capacity level, capacity utilization and
product-mix. The segment takes into its fold the
following manufacturing activities in different capacity
level;
1. Mini Blast Furnace based
2. Sponge iron producers
3. Induction Furnace (IF)
4. Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)
5. Re-rolling (RR) units
6. Hot Rolled (HR) units
7. Cold Rolled (CR) units
8. Tin plate units
9. Galvanized/Color coated units
10. Wire-Drawing units
In terms of number of units in operation and
production capacity there has been substantial growth
in number of units and production capacity of pig iron,
sponge iron, IF and RR segments, whereas
downstream processing units, have seen little or no
growth. In the flat steel category, galvanized/coated
segment have recorded the maximum growth.
Sponge iron industry in the mineral-rich belts of the
country has registered phenomenal growth.
Mushrooming’ of growth had started most markedly
after 2002 Number of factors contributed to this
growth are relative low cost of investment, ease of
sponge iron plant implementation, clear-cut
JANUARY-2011/28

technology of direct reduction, better quality in endproduct;
availability of mineral resources, availability
of labor as well as professional technical expertise
etc. The most critical aspect of the emergence of the
Secondary Steel Sector is that in recent times, they
have taken lead in driving the growth.
The reasons for the tremendous growth of the sponge
iron industry world over could be attributed to the
advantages of using sponge iron in electric arc
furnaces, partly substituting scrap, the conventional
charge to the furnaces. Further, the use of sponge
iron in other steel
manufacturing processes has also been well proven.
The advantages of sponge iron are given below;
1. Uniform known composition
2. Low levels of residuals/tramp elements
3. Low content of dissolved gases
4. Uniform size and higher bulk density as compared
to scrap
5. Capability of forming protective cover of foamy
slag in the bath
6. Lower refining requirements of steel produced
7. Potential of sensible heat recovery from waste
gases
8. Possibility of producing variety of steels
The other aspect of the importance of Secondary
Producers is their geographical spread - the
emergence and presence of this heterogeneous
group of units, with their varied commodity basket in
different parts of the country, have helped steel reach
the common man and of course, the local industry,
aiding in turn, the growth of regional industry and
hence, the overall economy.
State-wise analysis of data shows that the Western
region dominates the production scenario in case of
sponge iron followed by the East and the South. The
situation includes both coal and gas based units. In
case of crude steel, the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)
segment leads in the Western region followed by the
North and the East. Southern region comes last but
presence there is insignificant. For Induction Furnace
(IF), the pattern of rankings of the regions (based on
their share in total production) in case of the IF
segment is similar to the EAF – West, North, East
and South. However, the respective shares are
different with Southern region having a more
significant presence in case of IF than EAF. For the
Re-rolling industry, catering to the needs of the Indian
construction sector, the Northern region leads by a
margin compared to the West followed by the
Southern region and East following closely
All these make it imperative to enquire into the
prospects of growth for the Secondary Sector. Setting
apart the diversity, one finds that segments like
Sponge Iron, Induction Furnace and Re-rolling are
poised for fresh spurt in expansion – which entails
challenges and issues to be addressed. For example,
for sponge iron, where there have been a major
mushrooming of coal based units in the mineral rich
states, the prospect for future growth is bright having
a direct linkage with growth in steel. However, the
main challenges facing this segment are acquiring
adequate quantity of iron ore and proper grade of
coal and dealing with environmental issues.
Similarly, for Induction Furnace segment, low
investment cost and flexibility in operation are major
edges for this leading consumer of coal based DRI.
Prospect for future growth is directly tied with growth
in its downstream consumer industry (Re-rolling) and
in turn, would encourage growth in DRI industry.
Moving over to the Re-rolling segment, challenges
include facing the market downs, especially prices
and operational factors like high energy consumption.
Prospect for future growth may be considered bright,
given the pace and scale of infrastructure /
construction activities
Such prospects are captured in the projections for
the 11 th
Five Year Plan of the Government of India,
which indicates that share of Secondary Producers
JANUARY-2011/29

in total crude steel production would rise from the
present below-50% mark to 53% at the end-of the
plan period, as the Secondary sector consolidates
their position further.
JANUARY-2011/30

JANUARY-2011/31

New product developments
Sabyasachi Mishra, Managing Director
Introduction
Allmineral Asia, a Kolkata based subsidiary of
Allmineral GmbH, Germany came into existence
in June 2009 and has made deep in-roads into the
mineral beneficiation sector in India. It is equipped
with world class technologies, both dry& wet, in
beneficiation of coal, iron ore and other minerals to
provide complete beneficiation solutions-concept to
commissioning.
In coal application, allmineral has unique dry jigging
with no process water requirement. Additionally, with
wet jigging & multi-stage heavy media separation
system (Tri Flo ®), allmineral is the only company to
provide such varied technologies to Indian coal
industry. In iron ore too, allmineral has solutions for
very low grade ores as well as from lumps to ultra
fines.
Allmineral Gmbh, one of the world leaders in mineral
beneficiation, with its head quarter at Duisburg,
Germany has subsidiaries in USA, South Africa,
Poland and is represented in more than 20 countries
through licensees & agents etc. Allmineral has
worldwide successful installations, in countries like
USA, Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Australia
etc. Over the years, Allmineral has sold more than
from allmineral
Dr.Heribert Breuer, Chairman
400 nos. alljigs, 100 nos. Allflux, 50 nos. allair and
50 nos. WHIMS, worldwide.
New Product Developments
A Quantum Jump - gaustec´s new X-type Mega-
WHIMS in operation with 700 tph :-
It took Gaustec 5 years - from the first industrial unit
to the biggest WHIMS ever built. And once again the
Itaminas Mine in the heart of the Brazilian iron
quadrangle in the state of Minas Gerais is the place
to be. Where everything started in 2005 with a 120
tph gaustec 3200 the new Mega- WHIMS gaustec ®
GX 3600 went into operation in July this year, at a
capacity of 700 tph. Not by coincidence again the
area of one of the largest iron ore deposits in the
world became the birthplace of this new class of giant
magnetic separators, where huge mining activities
require huge equipment capacities.
From the very first moment up to now gaustec is
convincing the customers with simple but intelligent
solutions, from operators for operators. The
implementation of numerous improvements to the
well known JONES- WHIMS concept were honored
by the market. Easier maintenance, less energy
consumption as well as more flexibility by means of
more parameters to adjust, i.e. better performance,
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led to more than 50 gaustec ® - WHIMS sold in five
years only.
And now with the new model capacities per unit have
doubled at almost the same footprint, the same
weight, the same energy consumption and the same
efficiency, of course:
The new gaustec ® - GX 3600 with capacities from
360 to 800 tph¹).
At the Itaminas plant the new gaustec ® -GX 3600 is
fed with hematite iron ore < 1 mm with a feed grade
of about 54 % Fe and 23 % SiO 2 at a rate of 700
tph, 50 % solids. The product of this cobber stage is
further upgraded in a second, already existing
gaustec ® -G 3600 to a final product of plus 66 % Fe
and less than 3.0 % SiO 2 . The tailings of the cobber
stage are fed to a gaustec ® - GHP 150, which works
as a scavenger, producing tailings with about 18 %
Fe and 60 % SiO2. With the future introduction of a
grinding circuit for better liberation it is expected that
the iron in the tailings can be reduced to less than
10 % Fe, since by now only natural iron ore fines are
processed.
In addition to the general features of gaustec ® -
WHIMS like
l Independently adjustable magnetic fields of the
rotors of up to 15.000 Gauss
l Easy access to rotors for maintenance
l Controlled feed distribution through improved
feed box design
l Optimized spray boxes for product washing of
higher efficiency at less water consumption
The gaustec ®
-GX 3600 offers even more technical
and economical advantages:
l Lower specific CAPEX and OPEX per ton of feed
l Less ancillary equipment required
l Simplified processing flow sheet and plant layout
That´s why the X in the new gaustec ® -WHIMS not
only symbolizes the new pole arrangement but leads
the way to increased benefits for the mineral industry
by making use of the high capacity gaustec ® - GX
technology.
¹) figures for iron ore, depending on feed
characteristics, to be confirmed by test work
Photo description “Gaustec - 3600 | Itaminas,
Brazil|
Tri Flo ® - the new generation multi-stage heavy
media DMS
Allmineral Asia Pvt Limited, has tied-up with the
Italian company Ecomin S.r.l for providing new
generation Tri-Flo technology-a multistage heavy
media system for beneficiation of high ash Indian
Coals. The Tri-Flo ® technology uses a multi-stage
heavy medium separator and has several
JANUARY-2011/33

advantages over the conventional heavy media
cyclones. It is an ideal technology for the high ash
& high NGM Indian coals. The Tri-Flo ® has a very
high sink capacity and produces three products in
one vessel, thus improving separation efficiency,
simplifying plant layout i.e. requiring less space and
reducing overall capital costs. Additionally, in this
system the material is fed at an atmospheric
pressure separately from the dense medium.
This results in very low wear & tear compared to
conventional heavy media system and thus resulting
in reduced overall operating costs.
The Tri-Flo is a proven technology with more than
30 nos. commercial plants operating worldwide
mainly in mineral processing. This technology is now
attracting the interest of coal beneficiation plant
operators and designers due to its unique features
that better deal with the problems posed by modern
coal mining methods, lower run-of-mines (ROM)
quality and rejects rewashing. The Indian non-coking
coals have a very high range of quality variation in
feed. The Tri-Flo ® Technology with a double stage
separation can better adapt to the Indian coals and
provide a more consistent product at higher yields
with reduced wear & tear and thus resulting in better
plant availability.
Allmineral | Asia having additionally dry jigging
technology (Allair ® ) and wet jigging technology
(Alljig ® ), has already made deep in roads into the
Indian Mineral beneficiation market. With the Tri-
Flo ® technology in its bag, it is the only company
in India to offer such a varied range of
technologies to the Indian coal and minerals
industry.
Advantages of Tri-Flo Technology
The Tri-Flo technology has numerous advantages
over the competitors’ technologies. Advantages
are reported below.
Two, Three, or More Product from One Vessel
The Tri-Flo is a multistage separator in one vessel
with reduced capital cost (buildings, piping, etc.) and
operating cost, if compared with the same multiple
density traditional circuit. The Tri-Flo rewashes the
float stream of the previous stage where the
separation is repeated and operates like a rougher-
cleaner in coal preparation or as a rougherscavenger
in ore separation.
The second or following stage can be:
l A final bye-product (i.e. premium coal, power plant
coal, and rejects)
l Comminuted to improve the liberation and reprocessed
for increased recovery
l Re-circulated to head feed for sharper separation
in difficult applications
Energy cost of pumping is reduced by up to 50% if
compared with traditional double stage installations.
Reprocessing the Float Material Gives Better
Results Than Reprocessing the Heavy Material
Tri-Flo - Heavy material must travel from the centre
to the wall of the separator to be discharged and the
misplaced coal to rejects is minimal. On the contrary
the float is discharged from the centre of the
separator on the same axe where it is fed and might
contain some misplaced heavy material due to
various reasons (overloading the separator, changed
conditions in the feed characteristics, etc.). In case
of overloading of the first stage, the second stage is
fed with the first stage light material and the majority
of the heavy material has been already rejected,
making the conditions in the second stage more
stable and allowing to reject the misplaced material.
Other Technologies – Other technologies, derived
from the British Coal Board (Larcodems and similar)
have the possibility to rewash the heavy material in
a second stage. If the first stage is overloaded low
quality light product is produced and lower densities
are required to obtain the target product misplacing
to rejects the more profitable premium coal which
will be discharged as power plant product with
significant economical losses as proved in many
applications.
Reprocessing the light material gives better overall
performance because each size fraction is separated
at more or less the same density, instead
reprocessing the heavy material provides density
cuts that are progressively higher as the particle size
decreases with obvious economical losses .
JANUARY-2011/34

Only the Medium is Pumped
Reduced wear of the Heavy Medium feed pump and
following piping – typical life time is doubled if feed
is not pumped. Higher plant availability due to
reduced blockages of piping and pump.
The feed material remains into the slurry for a very
short time as opposed to conical cyclones. Lower
degradation of the feed material and products with
following savings in water treatment.
Minimal Contact of the Material with the
Separator Wall
Tri-Flo - The feed enters the separator at atmospheric
pressure along the center of the separator, light
material floats along the central axe, highly abrasive
heavy material quickly reports to the wall and is
discharged through the sink head positioned near
the feed inlet.
Cyclones – The feed is pumped with the separating
medium and enters tangentially the separator near
the light material outlet (vortex finder). Heavy and
highly abrasive material rotate and wears the
separator from the feed point all the way down to
the opposite side where the sink outlet (spigot) is
positioned.
Improved Hydrodynamics Inside the Vessel
The flow patterns inside cylindrical vessel is improved
in comparison with more uniform centrifugal
acceleration and a wider region of zero axial velocity
particularly useful for difficult / high near gravity
separations (high amounts of material of specific
gravity near the separation gravity which is very
common in India).
High Sink Capacity
The Tri-Flo technology has the highest sink capacity
on the market for both the first and second stage
allowing for wide variations in feed characteristics.
Conical cyclones are notoriously sink limited.
Larger Feed Top Size
The Tri-Flo technology can accept larger particles
than conical cyclones if comparing the same vessel
diameter. This means that in smaller scale
applications with acceptable coal liberation:
l a single circuit (Tri-Flo) can operate the
separation saving on the coarse coal circuit (static
bath or jigs)
l It is not necessary to reduce the feed top size to
fit the vessel diameter
As an example, assuming a 200 t/h application with
good liberation at top size of 75mm. A single 700
mm Tri-Flo can be installed, if a cyclone is installed
for the capacity a 750 mm should be chosen but the
feed material must be crushed at top size of 50 mm.
As an alternative, to accommodate a top size of 75
mm a 1000 mm should be installed. In both cases,
the economical savings offered by the Tri-Flo are
significant.
Fine Media and Media Segregation
Acceleration forces are necessary for the separation.
Also the fine ferromagnetic powder used for the
medium has the tendency to separate and the density
of the sink medium is higher than the density of the
float medium. This difference is called differential. If
the differential is too high the separation sharpness
is compromised and a finer medium shall be used.
Finer medium is more expensive and more difficult
to recover, hence the operational cost is higher.
Cylindrical cyclones show lower differentials if
compared with conical cyclones allowing coarser and
less costly powder to be used.
DynaFeedä System
The patented DynaFeedä system allows sharper
separation in the following separator. The more
difficult the material to be processed the higher the
advantages obtained with the DynaFeed system.
Obviously, the DynaFeed system gives significant
advantages with fine material (-4 mm) which is more
difficult to process. During initial testing on a difficult
separation, clean coal yield was increased as much
as +25% if compared with the same separator
operating without the DynaFeed system.
JANUARY-2011/35

Description “Graspan Tri Flo ® Plant | 1 MTPA”
Description “Tri Flo ® in operation
Typical Tri-Flo Plant data – Discards
Ash % CV Mj/Kg
Feed 30-55 16-10
Clean Coal 20-30 20-24
Rejects 55-70 3-10
Tri-Flo Performance Test
Feed rate : 250 t/h Feed Ash 50%
Ep Organic Efficiency Tot Mispl. Material
0.012 98.90% 0.86%
Note : 20 MJ/kg = 8600 Btu/lb
250 t/h = 275 stph
alljig ® -jigging machines in demand worldwide!
New installations in Northern and Eastern
Europe!
Europe´s largest stainless steel plant in Tornio,
Finland – producing 1.7 million tons a year –
recently opened a new slag processing plant in
September 2010. The main components of this
new plant are two powerful alljig ® -jigging
machines, ordered by TAPOJÄRVI, which runs
the plant on behalf of OUTOKUMPU. The slag, a
by-product of steel production, still contains 5 -
10 % metal, and the alljig ® -jigging machines
separate out this valuable metal for metallurgical
reprocessing. The other product is metal-free
slag that can be used as aggregate. As raw
materials are becoming increasingly scarce,
there is a growing trend toward economical
processing of by-product slag from
ferrochromium, ferromanganase and stainless
steel production. In turn, there has been a
noticeable spike in demand for alljig ® -jigging
machines, particularly in Northern and Eastern
Europe. Within the last five years, allmineral has
increased its market share there considerably –
and it looks like things will only get better.
On September 8, 2010 the residents of the town of
Tornio on the Finnish-Swedish border were treated
to a special visit from Mauri Pekkarinen, the Finnish
Minister of Economic Affairs, and the Senior Vice
President of OUTOKUMPU. Both attended the official
opening ceremony for the state-of-the-art processing
plant at the largest stainless steel plant in Europe –
which is also the biggest employer in the region.
TAPOJÄRVI will run the new plant that makes it
possible to extract the last bit of valuable metal from
stainless steel slag. Air-pulsed alljig ® -jigging
machines are the core equipment of this process,
and take advantage of gravity by using the difference
in metal and slag density to efficiently separate the
two. These machines from Germany are designed
for capacities of 50-100 tons per hour, while efficiently
sorting particles ranging in size from one millimeter
to 32 millimeters.
The Finnish corporate group Outokumpu is one of
the largest producers of high-quality stainless steel
worldwide. Its yearly melting capacity is around 2.5
million tons, and its rolling capacity for warm and
JANUARY-2011/36

cold strip, long products and quarto metal sheets is
just under 2 million tons. The Finnish plant in Tornio
is the affiliated group’s largest factory, and is unique
in that it has the only fully integrated production line.
The aforementioned production line starts in the EU’s
only chromium mine in Keminmaa, where
approximately 200,000 tons of lump ore and 400,000
tons of fine concentrate are produced every year.
The steel plant has two production lines: one with
100 tons and the other with 150 tons and converters
in which the melted ferrochromium is processed with
steel scrap. The warm rolling factory produces steel
with widths ranging from 1 to 1.6 meters and with a
thickness of up to 12 mm. Most of the coils made
there are then turned into acid-resistant stainless
steel sheets and plates at the cold rolling factory for
customers all over Europe.
Due to the high separation density necessary, the
alljig ® -jigging machine is in many cases the only
economical solution for producing high-quality metal
that can then be directly reprocessed metallurgically.
In addition, the cleaned slag can also be sold as
valuable aggregate for concrete or road construction.
In the first half of the decade, there was a great
demand in Western Europe and Africa for allmineral’s
innovative processing technology, but currently the
spotlight is on countries in the CIS. Initially, allmineral
set up two lines, each with two alljig ® -jigging
machines, for ferrochromium slag processing at the
Russian metallurgical plant Cheliabinsk (one of the
largest in Europe). Their throughput rate is 20 resp.
40 tons per hour and machine.
Now allmineral has received an order for two alljig ® -
jigging machines to be used for upgrading the raw
materials enrichment for ferrochrome-production, the
chromite ore itself. And following their first order for
an alljig ® -jigging machine in 2007, another chromium
ore processing plant, owned by the Kazchrom
company in Chromtau, Kazakhstan, has just ordered
another one.
Within a short amount of time, twelve alljig ® -jigging
machines for slag processing have been put into
operation: two in Belgium, four in South Africa, four
in Russia and two in Finland. In addition, there are
also the aforementioned four alljig ® -jigging machines
for chromite ore benefication for clients in Russia
and Kazakhstan. In total, allmineral has supplied over
400 alljig ® -jigging machines around the world, where
they are used to efficiently sort not only slag, but
also coal, ore, gravel, sand, crushed stone and
recycling materials.
Description “Alljig ® 2500 | Tornio
JANUARY-2011/37

JANUARY-2011/38

SPONGE IRON INDUSTRY – INDIAN OUTLOOK
Sponge Iron or Direct-reduced Iron, is considered to
be an additional support to the ever increasing steel
demand in the developing economies. With
conventional steel making plants requiring high capital
investments and an added pressure of increasing
coking coal prices, the alternate method of
manufacturing Iron from direct reduction provides a
solution in the labor intensive economies like India.
Also, India is the largest producer of sponge Iron in
the world producing over 20 million tons per year, in
last three years. Other than India; Iran, Venezuela,
Saudi Arabia and Mexico are the major sponge Iron
producers. In comparison to this, world’s largest steel
producer and consumer, China has a very small DRI
industry, mainly owing to the fact that, the major
Chinese Steel manufacturers are state owned.
Sponge Iron is produced by directly reducing Iron Ore,
using chemical compound known as Reducing gas,
consisting mainly Carbon Monoxide (CO) and
Hydrogen gas (H ). This reducing agent is primarily
2
produced by either Gas or Coal fired plants. India as
stated above, being the largest producer of DRI, relies
heavily on Coal fired DRI plants. In FY 2008-09, out
of India’s total sponge Iron output of about 21 million
OreTeam Research (www.oreteam.com)
Looking at the figures for last five years, the sponge
Iron production in the FY 2004-05 was approximately
10 million tons, amounting to 18 percent of the global
sponge Iron production. The value rose to little more
than 21 million tons in FY 2008-09, depicting the 31
percent of the total global production. Industry has
achieved the production of 23 million tons for FY
2009-10, thus depicting 35 percent of total DRI
production in the world. Some reports also suggested
that in coming few years, India’s sponge Iron
production will go beyond 40 million tons a year,
keeping in sync with the local and global steel pricing
provided policy initiative supports from the
Government on sustained availability and affordable
prices of vital inputs. The figure below depicts the
increase in the production of DRI in last 10 years.
tons, Coal fired plants contributed about 16 million
tons, amounting to 76 percent of the total Indian DRI
production. The estimated figures depicts that in the
current fiscal year the DRI produced through Coal
fired plants will reach about 17 million tons, about 74
percent of the total Indian sponge Iron production.
JANUARY-2011/39

Moreover, some analyst suggest that the future
projection in terms of India, the installed capacity for
producing sponge Iron will increase to about 40-50
million tons, an almost double of the existing installed
capacity. Also the production is estimated to reach
the levels of 43 million tons a year, by FY 2014-15.
The Gas based plants are likely to produce 8 million
tons a year by FY 2014-15. Thus, this growth will be
mainly attributed by increasing the installed capacities
of the Coal fired plants and setting up new plants.
The installed capacity of the Coal fired plants is
estimated to reach the levels of 50 million tons, by
FY 2014-15. Also, by FY 2014-15, the production
through these Coal fired plants is estimated to reach
PPP
the levels of 35 million tons per year, more than
double of the existing production by Coal fired plants.
However, some reports suggested, that this increased
capacity will depend on the pricing strategy followed
by Coal India in the coming years. Also, some industry
experts suggest that most of the DRI manufacturers
are reluctant to buy expensive imported Coal, due to
sustainability issues. Moreover, some analysts
indicated, that it’s a wait and watch time, as 12 th
five
year plan is round the corner, and the new regulations
by Ministry of Coal, will have an impact on India’s
domestic Steel and Iron Ore industry.
JANUARY-2011/40

With best compliments from:
KMMI STEEL PRIVATE LIMITED
(A Minera Group Company)
Manufacturer of Sponge Iron
811/2, NH-63, Hospet Road,Alipur
BELLARY-583105
Karnataka
P: + 91 8392-237701 / 237708
F: + 91 8392-237744 / 237799
E: info@mineragroup.com
W: www.mineragroup.com
JANUARY-2011/41

BRIEF REPORT ON ONE DAY SEMINAR ON OPERATIONAL COAL
BASED DRI-RECENT TRENDS AT TATA SPONGE IRON LTD.
A one day technical seminar was organised by Tata Sponge with support of Sponge Iron Manufacturers
Association (SIMA) on 21st (1st half) & 22nd (2nd half) December, 10 on the topic “Operation of coal based DRI
plants – recent developments”. The focus was to provide a platform for learning from each other about latest
trends in production of sponge iron in rotary kilns and also to bring in focus upon some of the challenges for
sustaining the business. The seminar was organised at Officers Recreation Center of Tata Sponge’s township,
at Bilaipada, Orissa. Around 20 member companies of SIMA nominated their delegates to attend the seminar
where four technical papers were presented on different issues.
Mr.Suresh Thawani, Managing Director, Tata Sponge, welcomed all the participants to the seminar. He expressed
hope that the seminar would provide networking opportunity to participants for wider interaction during the
seminar and later and suggested that similar seminars should be arranged to share best practices in
maintenance of kilns.
The seminar started with the guest speaker , Dr.D Bandopadhyay, Dy. Director, NML making a lucid presentation
on the mechanism of iron ore reduction.
The other two speakers on Day-1, Mr.Laxman Prasad, Adviser Advisor [Mineral Resources and Environment,
Godawari Power & Ispat Ltd and Mr.SC Khattoi, Managing Director, Project & Engineering Consultancy spoke
about the dwindling availability of sized iron ore and the need to find appropriate technology to agglomerate
iron ore fines at affordable cost. Mr.Prasad dwelled upon the prevailing operational constraints, leading to low
& inconsistent quality of DRI, short campaign life of DRI Kilns etc. Mr.Khattoi elaborated on various alternative
technologies under development to convert ore fines & coal fines into either DRI or liquid metal.
JANUARY-2011/42

The fourth presentation was made by Mr.Partho Chattopadhyay, Chief Operating Officer (Sponge Business) on
development of an integrated IT platform to monitor & control the kiln operational parameters on-line. The
presentation primarily covered details of an eLogBook developed in-house by Tata Sponge, which facilitates
the operators to take decisions by on-line/real time availability of operational parameter trends. As per the
presentation, this software has helped the company to increase productivity, maintain quality, optimize the
utilization of scarce resources like raw materials and manpower.
In his concluding remark, Mr.SS Bhatnagar expressed that there was a need for similar interactions on a
regular basis in future. He thanked all present for their participation and Tata Sponge in particular for hosting
the seminar and extending the hospitality to the participants. The participants were also shown around the
TATA Sponge Works & other facilities during their stay.
JANUARY-2011/43

JANUARY-2011/44