Abstract
Using hydrogen as a reducing agent in place of carbon is the subject of numerous recent R&D projects with the ultimate goal of achieving carbon-neutral iron production. This paper reports the findings of a study on the reduction behavior of iron ore pellets investigated by isothermal experiments using pure H2 gas in a high-temperature vertical tube furnace. The reduction experiments were performed at 800 °C. Two types of samples with distinct mineralogy were used to examine the effect of composition on the reducibility of iron ore pellets. In addition, a series of partially reduced samples were obtained by interrupting the reduction reaction at various processing times and exploring the microstructural evolution at different stages of the reduction.