| Abstract: | The scope of the present work is limited to coal-based processes. For environmental and economical considerations, it is desirable
to use iron ore concentrates directly without agglomeration and coal directly without coking for ironmaking. The energy efficiency
of blast furnace ironmaking, which is improving constantly, is the moving target to overtake.
Laboratory data on kinetics and mechanisms of iron oxide reduction in ore/coal mixtures will be reported. These data include
the reduction of green pellets of ore/coal mixtures in air atmosphere in a muffle furnace. The advantages of high temperature
and tall bed will be discussed.
The idea of integration of a rotary hearth furnace with a heat source of very high temperatures such as a smelting reduction
vessel mainly for melting and slag-metal reactions will be presented.
This article is the main part of the Howe Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr. W-K. Lu at ICSTI’98 and the 57th Ironmaking Conference
and 81st Steelmaking Conference in Toronto, ON, Canada. The first half of the Lecture, which is introductory in nature, has
been drastically shortened here because these contents have been recently published in five separate papers in 1998 and 1999,
co-authored by Lu. The remaining parts are intact and are main messages of the Lecture. Recent development on this subject,
under contract with the American Iron and Steel Institute, will be briefly reviewed and included as an Appendix.
Wei-Kao Lu is a metallurgical engineer and has been teaching and conducting research at McMaster University Hamilton, ON,
Canada since 1965. Born in China, he grew up and went to college in Taiwan. He received his advanced education in the United
States at the University of Minnesota before settling in Hamilton to pursue an academic career.
At the University of Minnesota, he studied under professors T.L. Joseph and G. Bitsianes and liked the challenge presented
by the monster blast furnace, but felt inadequately prepared for the task. His attention, then, was focused on physical chemistry.
His interest in fundamental science led him to his first job as a PDF on theoretical chemistry. He won the AIME prize for
graduate students in the field of metallurgy for his paper published in 1963.
The subject of Professor Lu’s research always has been chemical kinetics. But, he has applied it to different topics relevant
to ironmaking and steelmaking for the purpose of clarifying technical issues for better options to be defined by industry.
Generous support from Canadian and American institutions, particularly Stelco Inc., enabled Professor Lu to succeed in bringing
academics and industry closer by the establishment of the McMaster Symposium, Blast Furnace Ironmaking Course, and the Secondary
Resources Study Group of Ontario. Fellow members of the Iron & Steel Society have recognized his contributions by presenting
him with the T.L. Joseph Award, the Distinguished Member Award, and the Howe Memorial Lectureship of 1998.
In July 1997, Professor Lu retired from regular professorship and now is a research professor. Without undergraduate teaching
responsibilities, he has more time to intensify his efforts on “green technology.” Professor Lu is proud of his wife, Claudia,
who married him in 1965 and is a successful businessperson, and their daughters, Olivia, a computer engineer, and Vanessa,
a newspaper editor. |
