Introduction to pellets

Pellets are another method of providing "concentrate" to the blast furnace. The essence of the process is: mix the prepared raw materials (finely ground concentrate and powdery materials such as binders, additives, etc.) according to a certain proportion and form pellets of a certain size, and then dry and roast them. It undergoes a series of physical and chemical changes to harden and solidify. The product of this process is called pellets.

Pellets classification

There are three main types of pellets used:

Acidic pellets: pellets produced based on the natural alkalinity of iron ore concentrate, with calcium oxide or silica alkalinity ≤ 0.5.

Alkaline (flux) pellets: pellets produced by adding limestone (quicklime) or dolomite to iron ore concentrate.

Magnesium oxide pellets: pellets produced by adding olivine or dolomite to iron ore concentrate. The MgO content of the pellets is about 1.5%, and the alkalinity is less than or equal to 0.5.

There are other types of pellets, which are called carbon-containing pellets, titanium-containing pellets, high magnesium pellets, etc. due to the different amounts of materials added to the iron ore concentrate.

Application of pellets

Pellets are widely used in metallurgy, building materials, chemical fertilizers, environmental protection and other fields. Among them, the most important is its application in the metallurgical industry, which is mainly used for blast furnace smelting, direct reduced iron preparation and gas power generation in the steel production process. At the same time, pellets can also be directly used in fields such as construction and road construction.

Application of XRF in Pellets Industry

The composition of pellets is an important factor affecting the physical and chemical properties of pellets. TFe, Al₂O₃, CaO, MgO, SiO₂, P and S, as the main components in pellets, have always been important for determining the quality of pellets. Metrics. In the past, chemical analysis methods were mainly used to determine the composition of pellets, which was labor-intensive and the analysis cycle was relatively long. In order to better meet the needs of sintering production and provide analysis results faster and more accurately, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) is widely used in pellet production, with fast multi-element analysis, high sensitivity and easy operation. 

Application example

In this experiment, the pellets sample provided by a company was pressed into blocks and then analyzed using the LANScientific ScopeX  980CS desktop vacuum analyzer. The analysis is as follows:

Sample

Test Result