Determination of reduction degree of direct reduced iron via FT-IR spectroscopy

In this study, the applicability of FT-IR spectroscopy to determination of direct reduction degree of Attepe iron ore was examined. For that purpose, infrared spectra of all samples generated as the stack gas of the reduction reaction were recorded in a ZnSe windowed gas cell equipment at 2 cm−1 resolution. Thus the variation of the stack gas composition with time was monitored. The degree of reduction for iron ores (R%), given as the ratio of removed oxygen amount during the reaction to the initial total oxygen content of ore, was estimated by both the FT-IR analysis of the stack gas and the volumetric analysis of the reduced iron ore samples. The results obtained by both gas and solid analyses were compared and a satisfactorily good agreement was observed. As a result, it is concluded that FT-IR Continuous Emission Monitoring (CEM) is a reliable, rapid and efficiently applicable analysis method for DR processes and for more other FT-IR traceable gas–solid reactions as well.