The present study contributes to the current worldwide activities aiming to replace fossil carbon in steel making processes with hydrogen causing considerable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Compacts prepared from iron oxide pellets fines were isothermally reduced in pure hydrogen gas and a mixture of hydrogen and argon in the temperatures range from 700 to 1100 °C. The total weight loss produced during the reduction process was continuously recorded using thermogravimetric analysis (TG) technique. The findings demonstrated that the temperature has a considerable impact on the conversion and reduction rates. At a given temperature, the reduction rate was accelerated as the amount of H₂ increased in the reducing gas. The results indicated that H₂ content does not have an effect on reduction behavior, when it is higher than 80%. The reduction reaction of samples was shown to takes place in a step wise manner from hematite to metallic iron. The reduction kinetic and mechanism were deduced from the application of mathematical models and the morphological structure of the reduced samples and correlated with the apparent activation energy (E_a) values. The E_a values at the early, intermediate and final stages were 16.36, 29.24 and 49.35 kJ/mole, respectively. The early stage of the reduction process was controlled by chemical reaction, whereas the gaseous diffusion was controlled the latter stage. At the intermediate stage, the reduction process was controlled by mixed mechanism of gaseous diffusion and chemical reaction. Graphical Abstract

In recent years, the discrete element method (DEM) has been widely used to study the factors affecting the repose angle and calibrate particle parameters for simulations. In this paper, DEM is used to study the effects of the coefficient of rolling and static friction of pellet, sinter and coke particles on the repose angle. By comparison of the results of simulations and physical experiments, the coefficients of rolling and static friction suitable for simulation work are determined. The results demonstrate that repose angle increases with the coefficient of rolling and static friction, but the rate of increase gradually decays, when the coefficient of rolling friction exceeds 0.4 or the coefficient of static friction exceeds 0.35. The coefficient of static friction has a greater impact on the repose angle than the coefficient of rolling friction. The rougher of the base surface, the larger the repose angle of the formed particle piled. It can be concluded that appropriate coefficient of rolling and static friction for simulations can be obtained by the outlined procedure.

This study examines the isothermal and non-isothermal reduction behaviors of iron ore compacts in a pure hydrogen atmosphere and compares the results obtained during the reduction process by CO. The different phases accompanying the reduction reactions were identified using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and its morphology was microscopically examined. In isothermal experiments, temperature plays a significant role in the reduction process. At any given temperature, the reduction rate during the initial stages is higher than that during the final stages. The reduction rate in H₂ atmosphere was faster than in CO gas. The comparison of activation energy values suggested that reduction with H₂ is more efficient than with CO. At the same temperature, the time required to achieve a certain degree of reduction was lower when using H₂ gas than CO atmosphere. In non-isothermal tests, the heating rate has a significant effect on the reduction rate and reduction extent. At the same heating rate, the degree of reduction was higher in H₂ atmosphere than in CO gas. Based on experimental data, the parameters of reaction kinetics were deduced by application of model-free and model-fitting methods. The reduction in H₂ atmosphere was controlled by nucleation model (Avrami-Erofeev model), while the CO reduction reaction was controlled by gas diffusion.