Influence of size of hematite powder on its deoxidation kinetics with H2 at low temperature

The deoxidation kinetics of hematite ore with various particle sizes with hydrogen at low temperature and reduction mechanisms were studied using the thermogravimetric analysis. Under the same temperature, after particle size of powder becomes thinner from 107.5μm to 2μm, the surface area of powder and the contact area between powder and gas increase, which makes the deoxidation process of hematite accelerate about 8 times, and the apparent activation energy of deoxidation reaction drops to 36.9 kJ/mol from 78.3 kJ/mol because of activity of ore powder improved with refining gradually. Under the same reaction rate, the reaction temperature of 6.5μm powder decreases about 80℃ than that of 107.5μm powder. Thinner diffusion layer also helps accelerate the reaction with powder refining. The higher the temperature, the greater peak of deoxidation rate is; under the same temperature, the greater the particle size, the smaller the peak of deoxidation rate is; both inner diffuse and interface chemical reaction play an important role in the whole reaction process.