Modelling of iron oxide reduction with hydrogen

The steel industry represents one of the key sectors of our society and it is, therefore, essential to devise new strategies to drastically reduce its carbon dioxide emissions. From this point of view, a potentially beneficial solution would be to replace the carbon sources used in the reduction processes of minerals with hydrogen. This requires a deeper understanding of the kinetics of iron oxide reduction in order to provide crucial elements for selecting the best-operating conditions and designing new technologies. In this work, an mathematical model was developed, based on the assumptions of the shrinking core model, to describe the reaction kinetics and mass transport phenomena occurring during iron ore reduction. Experimental tests were conducted to provide detailed data to support this work. The model results qualitatively agree with what was found in the laboratory tests.