Influence of various conditions on the course of the reduction of iron oxide with hydrogen in thermogravimetric studies

Abstract

The reduction of iron oxide with hydrogen is a widely studied research topic with increasing interest for several reasons. One of them is the growing demand for steel in the world and the CO2 emissions caused by its production. Hydrogen direct reduction is a very promising solution to green steelmaking and has the highest potential to reduce CO2 emissions. The direct reduction process is commonly associated with the reduction of pellets in shaft furnaces. But novel technologies, such as fluidized beds or entrained-flow reactors, which reduce directly iron ore fines must be further developed as they can reach much higher energy efficiencies. A second motivation to study the reduction of iron oxide with H2 is the growing need for fossil fuel-free energy carriers. Green hydrogen can be used to reduce iron oxide powders; the reduced iron, featuring high energy density, could serve as an energy carrier in "green" power plants. Both topics are in the scope of our research, dealing with thermogravimetric analyses of the reduction of iron oxide powders with hydrogen.