Sintering & Pelletisation

The work we do

Iron Ore Sintering Research

Sintering is the most widely used agglomeration process for preparing iron ore fines for blast furnace applications. We are using our expertise in iron ore sintering and evaluation of blast furnace burdens to assist industry to maximise the value of their resources, optimise product quality and reduce their environmental footprint.

Laboratory scale sintering

CSIRO has developed a laboratory scale sintering method that simulates plant scale sinter in a controlled environment to help understand the fundamental sintering behaviour of hematite/magnetite ores. These test methods developed by CSIRO allow rapid determination of the relative sintering performance of numerous ore blends faster and at much lower cost than at plant or pilot scale.  This approach enables:

• isolation of individual ore behaviour within a sinter blend
• determination of matrix strength
• characterisation of nucleus stability
• determination of fundamental behaviour of ore types, linked with CSIRO’s ore characterisation scheme
• direct correlation with pot-grate sintering.

Leading the Team, Dr Liming Lu

Dr Liming Lu is the Team Leader for Sintering & Pelletisation guiding CSIRO’s R&D into iron ore agglomeration and high temperature behaviour of iron ore agglomerates in blast furnaces and alternative ironmaking processes.  With more than 30 years of R&D experience in the characterisation, processing and evaluation of iron ores, metallurgical coals and light metals, Liming has collaborated closely with his peers around the world and published in a broad area ranging from material characterisation to mineral processing to pyrometallurgy.  Liming’s honours include:

• Featuring in the World’s Top 2% Scientists List published by Stanford University in 2020
• #43 out of 27568 scientists listed in the field of mining and metallurgy,
• Recipient of the 2019 Sawamura Award from the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan and 2003 Josef S Kapitan Award from American Iron and Steel Society.

Dr Lu is an international technical expert of the ISO Technical Committee TC102/SC3 which is responsible for reviewing and developing international standards for the physical testing of iron ore. In addition, Liming has also served as a Review Board Member for Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A and Minerals, Editorial Board member for Ironmaking and Steelmaking, Advisory Board member for the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, as well as being an Adjunct Professor at four leading Chinese universities.