Iron Production Using Ammonia as a Reductant

R&D Focus Areas:
Industrial heat processes

Lead Organisation:
CSIRO, Swinburne University of Technology

Partners:
Swinburne University of Technology

Status:
Active

Start date:
June 2022

Completion date:
June 2025

Key contacts:
Dr. Mark Pownceby, CSIRO Mineral Resources – mark.pownceby@csiro.au
Professor Akbar Rhamdhani, Swinburne University of Technology – arhamdhani@swin.edu.au

Funding:
Hydrogen Energy Systems Future Science Program (main contributor)

Project total cost:
AUD$177,181

Project summary description:
The reduction of iron ores with carbon generates ~7% of global CO₂ emissions to produce ~1.85 billion tonnes of steel per year. This project will look at the production of iron from iron ores by utilising ammonia as reductant, instead of coke, to support low-carbon ironmaking.

The direct utilisation of ammonia in the reduction process offers a process shortcut, alleviating the need for a preliminary ammonia cracking step. The project aims are to:

• Explore the fundamental behaviour of ammonia as iron ore reductant.
• Investigate the conditions required for ammonia direct reduction and parameters affecting the reactions through thermodynamic and kinetics studies by ammonia injection in laboratory scale shaft and/or fluidised bed reactors.
• Examine the reduction mechanisms of ammonia direct reduced iron (DRI) and develop a model of process characteristics.
• Propose a suitable industrial-scale reactor design.

The project outputs will include new technologies to be developed and demonstrated at laboratory and pilot scales, scientific knowledge to be published in scholarly journals and science-based advice to government, business and industry for informed decision-making and strategic planning.

Related publications and key links:
Tiara Triana, Geoffrey A. Brooks, M. Akbar Rhamdhani, Mark I. Pownceby; Iron Oxide Direct Reduction and Iron Nitride Formation Using Ammonia: Review and Thermodynamic Analysis; Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy (accepted May 2024); https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-024-00860-z

Tiara Triana, Geoffrey Brooks, M. Akbar Rhamdhani, M.I. Pownceby; Ammonia Direct Reduction of Iron Oxides – Preliminary Assessment; AISTech 2024 — Proceedings of the Iron & Steel Technology Conference, 6–9 May 2024, Columbus, Ohio, USA. (PDF) Ammonia Direct Reduction of Iron Oxides — Preliminary Assessment (researchgate.net)

CSIRO ‘Future Science Platforms: Hydrogen Energy Systems’: Iron Production Using Ammonia as a Reductant – Hydrogen Energy Systems (csiro.au)

Higher degree studies supported:
One PhD student at Swinburne University of Technology is supported by this project.

 

Reviewed: July 2024