Owing to majority of sintering fuel gas pollutants comes from the coke, modified charcoal replaced coke for iron ore sintering to achieve the emissions reduction of the pollutants in this study. By modifying biomass fuel with CaO and urea, the specific surface area, pore volume and pore diameter were reduced to 12.942 m² g⁻¹, 1.326e-02 cc g⁻¹ and 18.865 nm. The experimental results of sintering cup showed that the vertical sintering speed increased, the burning through point advanced, the sinter drum index decreased gradually, and the sintering yield increased initially and then decreased with the increasing of modified charcoal content. The optimum proportion of modified charcoal instead of coke powder was determined to be 40%. Meanwhile, application of the 40% modified charcoal to sintering resulted in a decrease of 45.85% for SO₂ and a decrease of 54.26% for NO_x emissions.

In the iron-ore-sintering process, the use of biomass charcoal instead of coke breeze can reduce the emission of flue gas pollutants and alleviate the energy crisis of fossil fuels. However, the direct application of biomass charcoal to iron ore sintering is bound to affect the sinter properties. The effects of biomass charcoal addition on the sintering ore properties and flue gas pollutants emission were studied through sintering cup and related performance test experiments. Meanwhile, the influence mechanism of biomass charcoal instead of coke breeze on iron ore sintering was expounded. The experimental results show that with an increase in biomass charcoal, the vertical sintering rate increased, the internal pore structure developed rapidly, and the pollutant emission decreased gradually. When the biomass charcoal content was less than 40%, the sinter strength and yield were stable and slightly improved with the increase in biomass charcoal. When the biomass charcoal content was higher than 40%, the metallurgical properties of sinter degraded sharply, making it difficult to meet the production requirements. The comprehensive effect of biomass charcoal on the sinter suggests that the suitable biomass charcoal addition was 40%; under this condition, the reduction in SO₂ and NO_x was 28.2% and 25.7%, respectively.