Sinter plant

Sinter plants agglomerate iron ore fines (dust) with other fine materials at high temperature, to create a product that can be used in a blast furnace. The final product, a sinter, is a small, irregular nodule of iron mixed with small amounts of other minerals. The process, called sintering, causes the constituent materials to fuse to make a single porous mass with little change in the chemical properties of the ingredients. The purpose of sinter are to be used converting iron into steel.

Sinter plants, in combination with blast furnaces, are also used in non-ferrous smelting. About 70% of the world's primary lead production is still produced using the sinter plant–blast furnace combination, and this combination was formerly often used in copper smelting (at the Electrolytic Refining and Smelting smelter in Wollongong, New South Wales, for example).

Many countries, including India, France and Germany, have underground deposits of iron ore in dust form (blue dust). Such iron ore cannot be directly charged in a blast furnace. In the early 20th century, sinter technology was developed for converting ore fines into lumpy material chargeable in blast furnaces. Sinter technology took 30 years to gain acceptance in the iron-making domain, but now plays an important role. Initially developed to generate steel, it is now a means of using metallurgical waste generated in steel plants to enhance blast furnace operation and reducing waste. The largest sinter plant is located in Chennai, India, and employs 10,000 people.

Main feed into a sinter plant is base mix, which consists of iron ore fines, coke fines and flux (lime stone) fines. In addition to base mix, coke fines, flux fines, sinter fines, iron dust (collected from plant de-dusting system & ESP) and plant waste are mixed in proportion (by weight) in a rotary drum, often called mixing and nodulizing drum. Calcined lime is used as binder of the mixed material along with water (all in particular proportion by weight) to form feed-sinter of about 5 to 7 mm in size. This sinter globules are fed to sintering machine and burnt there-in to produce blast furnace feed sinter.

...
Wikipedia