Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho

Kazuo Kunii

Isao Kobayashi

Shoichi Kikuchi

Shuzo Ito

Akira Uragami

Osamu Tsuchiya

Yoshimichi Takenaka

Shinichi Inaba

Takuya Negami

Toshihide Matsumura

Kimio Sugiyama

Masataka Shimizu

Takashi Kujirai

A method of making metallic iron in which a compact, containing iron oxide such as iron ore or the like and a carbonaceous reductant such as coal or the like, is used as material, and the iron oxide is reduced through the application of heat, thereby making metallic iron. In the course of this reduction, a shell composed of metallic iron is generated and grown on the surface of the compact, and slag aggregates inside the shell. This reduction continues until substantially no iron oxide is present within the metallic iron shell. Subsequently, heating is further performed to melt the metallic iron and slag. Molten metallic iron and molten slag are separated one from the other, thereby obtaining metallic iron with a relatively high metallization ratio. Through the employment of an apparatus for making metallic iron of the present invention, the above-described method is efficiently carried out, and metallic iron having a high iron purity can be made continuously as well as productively not only from iron oxide having a high iron content but also from iron oxide having a relatively low iron content.

Method and apparatus for making metallic iron

Metallic iron containing slag

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Kazuo Kunii