ROTARY KILN

 It is a coal based iron making process where the product is solid reduced iron.

Charging materials : iron ore lumps/pellets ,Non-coking Coal , Lime stone

Product : Solid porous Iron Oxide / Sponge iron/ Direct reduced iron (DRI)

Reactions : Basically reduction reaction is taken place in this process where iron
oxide is

Reduced to metallic iron.

Fe2O3 + 3CO → 2Fe + 3CO2(Reduction Zone)

Temperature profile :

Preheating zone→ Around 400 ̊C

Combustion zone→700 ̊C – 1000 ̊C

Reduction zone→800 ̊C– 1050 ̊C

Cooling zone→300 ̊C – 700 ̊C

Process : At this high temperature in reducing zone CO is more stable oxide . So it helps to
maintain reducing atmosphere inside the kiln to facilitate combustion of coal and generation
of CO. Continuous flow of air is introduced but from the opposite end. Basically it operates
on counter current principle. The kiln rotates to mix moving solid and gas and reduce
segregation. The length of the kiln is an important parameter to determine the percentage
reduction. The partially reduced iron oxide discharged from the kiln and it cools to room
temperature in a rotary cooler so that it will not go into reoxidation. At last metallic and
non-metallic component are separated by magnetic separator. Another product that comes
out of the kiln is off gas having high calorific value.