Mill Scale: A Potential Raw Material for Iron and Steel Making

A substantial quantity of mill A scale,containing very high percentage of iron is generated during processing of steel towards production of various long and flat products. In an integrated steel plant, though the major part of mill scale is recycled for in-house consumption, no commercial process for its utilization is so far available for the secondary sector. Thus, it is either dumped or exported at a very low price. The current paper presents some preliminary results of a laboratory scale investigation which involves pelletization of mill scale, using steel plant waste as an additive and subsequent reduction of the air dried pellet by non coking coal fines under conditions, simulating a tunnel kiln. The results of this investigation show that the green pellets could be successfully handled, without generating much of fines and could be converted to highly metalized Directly Reduced Iron(DRI)at a moderate temperature and at a reasonably low heating time.