SELECTIVE REDUCTION OF INDIAN NICKELIFERROUS ORE - SINGLE PELLET EXPERIMENTS

For economic extraction of nickel from lateritic nickeliferrous ore fo und in India by reduction roasting and leaching process, selective red uction of nickel oxide in preference to iron oxide is beneficial. For this purpose, ore characteristics and reduction kinetics of the ore wi th hydrogen is studied in the range of 800 K to 1000 K. The establishe d gas solid reaction kinetic models are then used to analyze the exper imental data and estimate the various kinetic parameters. Essential mo difications are incorporated in the model to consider the effect of no nisothermal reduction and product gas formation. The generalized model thus developed can predict the reduction rate of ore pellets with hyd rogen under any condition within the selected temperature range. Based on the model, reduced pellet structure is predicted under different c onditions to get a better insight and visualization of the reduction p rocess.