Abstract
A novel gas–solid suspension ironmaking process with much less energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions than the current blast furnace technology is under development at the University of Utah. The proposed process is based on flash reduction of iron ore concentrate with a gaseous reagent, such as hydrogen, syngas and/or natural gas. This series of papers reports on the results of process simulation for the proposed process operated with natural gas. This Part 2 deals with simulation of a commercial scale ironmaking process combined with a steam methane reforming process. The steam methane reforming process was simulated to produce hydrogen or syngas to provide fuel/reductant for ironmaking. Ironmaking was simulated in one-step configuration. The results indicated that the proposed process would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 31–35%, but energy consumption would be larger by 0–6%, based on the higher heating value of natural gas (28–29% lower, if the lower heating value is used), compared with the average blast furnace process. The sensitivity of the energy requirement to operating conditions was also examined.
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