Study on the Application of Straw Carbon as Reductant in the Recovery of Iron from High-Iron Red Mud

The recovery of iron from high-iron red mud is an important method for the large-scale utilization of red mud. Traditional fossil energy sources such as coking coal are usually used as reducing agents in the smelt reduction process of high-iron red mud, but they are not conducive to the early achievement of carbon neutrality in China. Straw carbon is a clean energy source with over 65% carbon content. Thus, the feasibility of straw carbon as a reducing agent to recover iron from high-iron red mud was investigated. Pig iron was obtained under the optimal reduction conditions of experimental temperature of 1400°C, alkalinity of 0.8, reduction duration of 20 min, MCaF2/MCaO of 4%, and carbon matching ratio of 1.1. More than 99% of the iron was recovered, and the results showed that straw carbon, which could effectively replace coking coal, achieved good results in the recovery of iron from high-iron red mud.