8th International Congress on Science and Technology of Ironmaking - ICSTI 2018

Direct reduction and electric arc furnace are important routes for steel production in the world. The DRI production in 2016 was 72.8 Mt, from which 64.8% was by Midrex Process, 17.5% by coal-based, 17.4% by Hyl/Energiron and 0.3% by Other processes. The metallic charge of direct reduction is mainly composed by iron ore agglomerate in the form of pellets and the direct reduction of iron ore occurs without melting and using natural gas as reducing agent. As a consequence, this process is widely used in countries where natural gas cost is low. Pellets chemical and metallurgical specifications are very important for direct reduction process and steel refining in electric arc furnace. These characteristics impacts on reactor´s productivity and consumptions of natural gas, electricity, flux and electrodes and consequently on steel cost production. The paper presents a discussion about the impacts of metallization degree of pellets for direct reduction on their value in use. Value in use is the maximum price that a particular company is willing to pay for a replacement material without deteriorating economic results. A mathematical model which simulates DRI and steel production by direct reduction and electric arc furnace route was developed using mass and heat balance and also empirical correlations from literature.