Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University (Magnitogorsk, Russia):

V. A. Bigeev, Dr. Eng., Professor, Dept. of Metallurgy and Chemical Technologies, e-mail: v.bigeev11@yandex.ru
S. K. Sibagatullin, Dr. Eng., Professor, Dept. of Metallurgy and Chemical Technologies, e-mail: 10tks@mail.ru
A. S. Kharchenko, Dr. Eng., Associate Professor, Head of the Dept. of Metallurgy and Chemical Technologies, e-mail: as.mgtu@mail.ru
M. V. Potapova, Cand. Eng., Associate Professor, Dept. of Metallurgy and Chemical Technologies, e-mail: marina_potapova8@mail.ru

The urgency of the applying of hydrogen as a reducing agent, as well as the involvement of off-balance complex and technogenic raw materials in metallurgical production is confirmed by the depleting reserves of coking coals and rich iron ores, the presence of large reserves of nickel in complex ores and dump slags, an increasing amount of metallurgical waste that pollutes the environment, the need for mechanical engineering for steels with a low carbon content and inexpensive ferroalloys, the presence of an unlimited amount of hydrogen in nature, the possibility of almost complete use of hydrogen with the exclusion of environmental pollution in metallurgical production, the possibility of selective extraction of components of complex ores, the feasibility of import substitution with an improvement in product quality. In this work the main parameters of the solid-phase reduction of nickel-containing ore from the Sakharinskoye deposit were determined, by mathematical modeling: hydrogen consumption, the amount and composition of reduction products at various degrees of iron extraction from ore raw materials. The results of mathematical modeling show that it is impractical to recover less than 5 % of iron by reason of the low degree of nickel recovery (less than 70 %). The rational degree of iron reduction from complex ore raw materials ranges from 5 to 10 %, which ensures the nickel content in the resulting ferroalloy up to 10 %. Such a ferroalloy can be used for the production of low-alloy steel grades 10HSND, 15 HSND, 17 HSND, which are widely used in shipbuilding. The resulting ferrous slag can then be used for iron manufacturing, which makes it possible to implement waste-free technology.

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