Engineering: Fully Funded M2A EngD Scholarship: Process optimising of sinter production through pilot manufacturing plant
Start date: October 2019
Supervisor: Professor C Pleydell-Pearce, Dr K Bevan and Dr C Melvin
Sponsoring company: Tata Steel
This post will remain open until a suitable candidate is found and we recommend you apply as soon as possible.
One of the major raw material inputs for steel production via the Blast Furnace route is sintered iron ore (sinter). Sinter, consisting of iron ore fines, fluxes and other additives, is produced via a continuous thermal process to produce an agglomerated product with the quality impacting on iron productivity and ultimately environmental performance.
Port Talbot Steelworks has a pilot scale sintering facility. This enables investigation into many of the metrics affecting predicted blast furnace performance including sinter quality. The facility enables small scale trials of sintering, with known blends and processing parameters.
This process control allows the ability to study the production variables including; sinter composition, gas flows (suction) and gas permeability during the sintering process alongside the evolution of small particulates during the process into the sinter pot flue system.
The aim of the research is to identify key operating positions for the sinter plant to maximise value of the product, at the same time as minimising the evolution of dusts in the process. The research will utilise live Sinter Plant data and Sinter Pot trials to corroborate hypotheses.
The Research Engineer will:
- Develop an understanding of Sinter quality;
- Develop an understanding of the sintering process parameters, that can influence key sinter quality parameters;
- Investigate the role of particle sizing, mineralogy and chemistry of ores, in dust generation;
- Investigate the role of waste gas suction in dust generation;
- Investigate the role of fluxes and reverts in sinter quality and dust generation.