Heat transfer of spent ion exchange resin in iron ore sintering process

Spent ion exchange resin (SIER) is a kind of solid waste which derived from water treatment process in iron and steel industry. Utilization of SIER as a replacement of fuel in sintering process is a promising method of SIER treatment. In order to investigate the feasibility of this method, heat transfer effects of SIER in iron ore sintering process were studied in this paper via numerical simulation. A 3D unsteady numerical reference model was developed on the basis of the porous media model and local non-equilibrium thermodynamics model and verified by the data form measurement. Heat transfer effects of different SIER mass fractions (0-8%) in sintering material during the sintering process were studied on the numerical model established in this paper. The results showed that with the increasing mass fraction of SIER, the maximum combustion zone thickness and flame front speed are both increased, the heating-up point, the moment when solid temperature reached the top and the maximum temperatures were all became earlier in different location of sintering bed. When SIER content is 8%, the maximum sintering temperature exceeds the maximum limit of best sintering temperature. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.