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Can Modified Starch be Used As A Binder For Iron Ore Pellets?

ABSTACT Organic binders are often desired when making low-silica iron ore pellets. Corn and wheat are grown in large quantities near certain iron ore pelletizing facilities and their starches are easily modified to form cold-water-soluble powders that can be used as binders. We investigated how starch cold-water solubility, starch dose, starch hydration time, green ball moisture content, and firing temperature affected pellet quality. With a fluxed, hematite concentrate, the high-soluble starch led to good wet and dry balls, but weak and friable indurated pellets compared to the standard binder, bentonite clay. As expected, the low-soluble starch did not make as good green balls as the high-soluble starch. Thermogravimetric analyses of unfired pellets and their abrasion products showed that modified starch was inhomogeneously distributed in pellets, with a high concentration near the ball surfaces. The surface concentration increased, and the core concentration decreased, as pellets grew during the pelletizing process. This suggests that starch enrichment near surfaces is a consequence of the agglomeration–compaction process, and may occur with other pelletizing binders. Abrasion mass losses were 81% greater with modified starch than with bentonite at 1100°C, and 31% greater at 1250°C. However, starch contents near the surfaces did not qualitatively correlate to roughness, as the highest starch dose tested gave the smoothest and least dusty pellets.