This paper presents a part of work developed inside theULCOS project, which aims at the radical reduction of CO2emissions from iron and steel production, through new routes thatmust be sustainable, i.e. environmentally-friendly, economicallyviable and socially acceptable. In order to demonstrate theirsustainability, Key Performance Indicators are the main toolsdeveloped inside the work package 9.4, “Sustainability Model& Process Selection Tool”, which aims at making complex issuesmore manageable. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are themost useful tools for evaluating and managing not only theenvironmental and economic impacts, but also the social impacts.The assessment of social aspect of sustainability must betaken into consideration, nevertheless the prediction ofsocial impacts is often hard to be done, not only becauseof the lack of a clear cause-effect relationship but alsobecause of the difficulty to analyse and to predict socialphenomena, especially through a quantitative approach.The purpose of this work is to present a methodology, basedon both quantitative and qualitative approaches, carried outin order to develop the social indicator (Local CommunityImpact Indicator), which has primarily taken into accountpossible impacts of a current integrated steelworks on thecommunities within the close vicinity of the plant operations.

Concevoir une nouvelle filière d'élaboration de l'acier fondée sur l'hydrogène semble prometteur si l'onconsidère les faibles émissions de CO2 qui en résulteraient. Dans le programme ULCOS, cette filière est wecomme une option à long terme, essentiellement conditionnée par l'émergence d'une économie de l'hydrogène.Pour anticiper son possible développement, on a décidé d'évaluer le procédé de réduction directe en four à cuvepar H2 pur et de déterminer ses conditions opératoires optimales grâce à une approche de modélisationmathématique, complétée par des expérimentations adaptées. Nous avons ainsi spécifiquement développé unmodèle mathématique, appelé REDUCTOR, qui simule le procédé et prédit ses performances. Ce modèle estfondé sur une description mathématique détaillée des phénomènes physico-chimiques et thermiques réels. Enparticulier, la cinétique de réduction est tirée d'essais expérimentaux en laboratoire. La version actuelle dumodèle ne tient compte que de la réaction par l'hydrogène mais une extension à la réduction par CO est prévuede manière à ce que ce modèle puisse aussi être utilisé pour simuler et optimiser les procédés de réductiondirecte existant actuellement. Les premiers résultats ont confirmé que la réduction par H2 était plus rapide quepar CO, ce qui permet d'envisager un réacteur sous Hz bien plus compact que les fours actuels des procédésMIDREX ou HYL.

MOGADOR is a 2D mathematical model of the blast furnaceat steady state. In this project, it is used to get a better insightof the internal state of the BF, as the new types of operationdiffer greatly from the conventional one. Three importantapplications for the project are illustrated.


The hydrodynamics in an electrolysis pilot-cell has beenmodelled with the aim of upscaling the direct iron productionprocess based on the alkaline electrolysis of an iron oxidesuspension. Two dispersed phase flow involved in this threephaseprocess have been evaluated: the solid and the gasphase hydrodynamics.The suspension flow characteristics areevaluated from existing litterature, and available correlationsare applied to the case under study. The minimum velocityrequired for transportation of finely ground iron oxide alongthe cathode surface is fairly low, in the laminar regime,corresponding to minimum pressure drop.The behaviour ofthe oxygen phase produced on the anode is evaluated in attwo scales. First, the trajectory of a single bubble sliding onthe anode is depicted, predicting possible rising or draggingof the bubbles as a function of its diameter. The gas-phasepattern is then studied from litterature results for gas-liquidflow in pipes. A separation of the gas phase from the liquidis predicted, the lightest phase being in contact with theupper part of the cell. Obtained results confirm the potentialof the selected design for transportation of particles and gasrecovery with low energy consumption.

The history of the LKAB's Experimental Blast Furnace isbriefly reviewed and an introduction to the ULCOS newblast furnace is presented. The feasibility of the scale-up ofthe ULCOS New Blast Furnace - UNBF based on previousand new trials results at EBF are concisely discussed.
The historical trial results of using the EBF to simulate theconventional industrial blast furnace processes indicatedthat the EBF is able to imitate the commercial blast furnacesof different size and burden structure. The trial results canbe directly extrapolated to the commercial furnaces. Thediscussions regarding the scale-up of the UNBF showed thatbased on the EBF as well as the trials of the UNBF conceptit is completely feasible to determine the dimensions ofa full scale furnace and the process parameters for anindustrial scale trial of the UNBF concept.

In order to develop a new, efficient industrial process forproducing high quality iron and steel with significantly reducedcarbon dioxide emissions, we investigated the electrowinningof iron from an iron oxide ore in aqueous alkaline solutions.Hematite (Fe2O3) solid particles suspended in the concentratedaqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solutions were transferredto the cathode (e.g., a rotating disk graphite electrode) andreduced to iron metal by applying a constant current; oxygenwas evolved on the anode (e.g., a nickel screen mesh). Currentefficiencies of above 90% with respect to iron depositionwere consistently obtained under the specific conditions in alaboratory cell, and the corresponding energy consumptionswere calculated to be around 3 kWh·kg-1 iron. The depositediron crystals were the oriented clusters of stacked six-fold twins ina tetrahedron-shape grew growing in a direction perpendicularto the cathode surface. Influences of rotation rates of the cathode,cathodic current densities, contents of the Fe2O3 particlesin electrolytes, and concentrations of NaOH solutions oncurrent efficiency and morphology of deposits were studied.

In the development of the electrolysis technique for iron,the cell-design step is crucial to ensure that the resultsobtained on smaller scale experiments are scaled-up toindustrial size. Design criteria, based on the theorem ofequipartitioned irreversibility, are proposed for the alkalineelectrowinning process. One of the specific features ofthe process is the treatment of a multiphase electrolyte, agenuine breakthrough for electroextraction processes. Eachof the unit-operations necessary to obtain the separation ofthe iron and oxygen from iron oxide are depicted togetherwith the corresponding physical limitations and availabletechnologies. Optimal solutions to obtain uniform andsteady variation of each of the involved phenomena canbe readily deduced from this approach and a cell-design isproposed.

ThyssenKrupp Steel AG has developed a numerical model tostudy the combustion of coal particles which are fed into theblast furnace through the tuyeres. The basic aim is to evaluatevarious coal lance / tuyere configurations and assess theiradvantages or drawbacks for successful operation. In theULCOS project, this model was used to check the feasibilityof some tuyere configurations for the Top Gas Recycling BlastFurnace process, which is especially challenging regardingtuyere design, combustion kinetics and raceway size.


Within the ULCOS project, a pilot cell for iron electrowinningis being designed. Electrical energy is used to transformiron ore particles (hematite) suspended in a sodiumhydroxide solution into iron metal and oxygen. The workdeveloped by Labein-Tecnalia is focused on the study ofthe fluid flow for different electrolytic cell configurationsto get knowledge of the interaction between the oxygenbubbles generated during the process and the electrolyteflow. The numerical algorithm used is the finite volume usedin the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics codeFLUENT. The work developed is focused on vertical andhorizontal parallel plates configurations, to analyze theremoval of oxygen bubbles from the gap between anodeand cathode, and the access of iron ore particles to thecathode. A user subroutine has been developed for theCFD code to compute the mass flow rate of oxygen bubblesgenerated at the anode, as a function of the local currentdensity. A methodology has been developed to analyzethe accessibility of the iron ore particles to the cathode.The knowledge obtained from this work has helped for thedesign of the pilot cell within the ULCOS project.