| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T24: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Electrification of Iron and Steel
|
| Presentation Title |
BioIron™ – The Development of a Low CO<sub>2</sub> Emissions Ironmaking Process Utilising Raw Biomass as a Reductant and Microwaves as an Energy Source |
| Author(s) |
David Leigh, Michael Buckley |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Michael Buckley |
| Abstract Scope |
Rio Tinto is one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore, with operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and in Canada. The ore produced from its Pilbara operations is a blend of hematitic and goethitic ores. Rio Tinto is examining a number of technologies for processing these ores to iron and steel with low or no (net) carbon emissions, including hydrogen DRI combined with an electric smelting furnace. One of the most promising technologies under development is the BioIron™ Process which utilises raw biomass as a reductant and microwave energy to produce a carbon containing Directly Reduced Iron (DRI) which can be processed to iron and steel. The BioIron™ technology has been scaled up from a 1 kW microwave laboratory rig, through extensive testwork in a 100kW bench scale furnace, with a 1 tph 1000 kW furnace under design. |