Sulfur balance calculation of new desulfurization technology in the iron ore sintering process

School of Metallurgical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243002, P.R. China

^* e-mail: springcsu@126.com

Received: 3 August 2015
Accepted: 22 December 2015

Abstract

The new desulfurization technology in the iron ore sintering process with added urea is an effective way to reduce SO₂ emission. In order to further study the mechanism of urea reducing SO₂ emission and investigate the output distribution of sulfur in the sintering process, a sulfur balance calculation in the sintering process was carried out under the conditions without/with added urea. The results showed that, in the base test without adding urea, 59.93% of the total sulfur derived from the sintering raw materials entered the sinter and the rest entered the sintering flue gas. In the desulfurization test with added urea, 53.62% of the total sulfur entered the sinter, 36.22% was transformed into ammonium sulfate ((NH${}_{\mathrm{4}}\mathrm{)}_{\mathrm{2}}$SO₄) and only 4.77% entered the sintering flue gas. It was proved that the sulfur of the sintering raw materials could be effectively transformed into ammonium sulfate, corresponding to the new desulfurization technology in the sintering process with added urea, reducing the SO₂ emission of the sintering flue gas.