The present invention provides a reduction system and method that can be operated with any proportion of gaseous hydrogen-containing gases and gaseous hydrocarbon-containing gases having the possibility of continuing its operation, ensuring an high process availability and negligible loss of production, when the gaseous hydrogen-containing gas for any reason is not available and allow the substitution of the gaseous hydrogen-containing gas with a gaseous hydrocarbon-containing gas with minor adjustments in the plant operation. The reduction system of the invention is designed to be implemented in new and already built direct reduction plants to operate efficiently and has lower capital and operation costs.

In a thermochemical method, a syngas comprising oxygen is combusted in a furnace, thereby producing a hot exhaust gas. The exhaust gas is subsequently discharged into the surroundings while the inner energy of the exhaust gas is at least partly used to carry out a reformation reaction. For this purpose, steam together with a hydrocarbon-containing fuel and an oxygen-containing gas are supplied to a reformer and converted into syngas in an endothermic reaction using inner energy of the exhaust gas. The heat of the exhaust gas is used in particular to evaporate water and supply same to the reformer in a superheated state. The syngas is then supplied to the furnace as fuel. The invention prevents undesired constituents of the furnace atmosphere, in particular sulfur compounds, from being supplied to the reformer.

Method for producing direct reduced metal material, comprising the steps: a) charging metal material to be reduced into a furnace space (120); b) evacuating an existing atmosphere from the furnace space (120) so as to achieve an underpressure inside the furnace space (120); c) providing, in a main heating step, heat and hydrogen gas to the furnace space (120), so that heated hydrogen gas heats the charged metal material to a temperature high enough so that metal oxides present in the metal material are reduced, in turn causing water vapour to be formed; and d) condensing and collecting the water vapour formed in step c in a condenser (160) below the charged metal material, characterised in that steps c and d are performed at least until a hydrogen atmosphere overpressure has been reached inside the furnace space (120), and in that no hydrogen gas is evacuated from the furnace space (120) until said overpressure has been reached. The invention also relates to a system.

A briquette cooling conveyor system includes an apron pan conveyor. The apron pan conveyor includes: an apron pan with openings adapted to drain water from the apron pan conveyor, an apron pan upper, carry strand, and an apron pan lower, return strand. The briquette cooling conveyor system further includes a carriage side flushing hopper positioned between the apron pan upper, carry strand and the apron pan lower, return strand, and the carriage side flushing hopper is configured to capture fines and water from the system.

A method for preheating metal pellets before charging into a melting furnace, wherein the pellets are transported by a conveyor belt to a chute and discharged from the chute into the melting furnace, the method including heating the pellets by direct flame impingement from two or more banks of burners, wherein the two or more banks of burners comprise an upstream bank of burners and a downstream bank of burners; and controlling the upstream bank of burners to operate oxygen-rich so as to create an oxidizing zone and the downstream bank of burners to operate fuel-rich so as to create a reducing zone.

A modular direct reduction system for producing direct reduced iron (DRI) includes a reformer system which receives a flow of feed gas and which discharges a flow of reducing gas, the reformer system including a plurality of separate reformer modules connected together and wherein each reformer module includes a reformer vessel including an internal chamber, a reactor tube extending through the internal chamber of the reformer vessel and containing a catalyst configured to react with the feed gas received by the reactor tube to form the reducing gas, and a burner to burn a fuel gas to heat the reactor tube, and a furnace system connected to the reformer system and including a furnace having a first inlet which receives an iron ore, a second inlet which receives the reducing gas from the reformer system to form the DRI, and an outlet which discharges the DRI.

A device for manufacturing molten iron is provided. The device for manufacturing the molten iron includes a multi-stage fluidized reduction furnace for reducing a powdered iron ore including hematite and limonite, a melting gas furnace connected to the fluidized reduction furnace through an ore conduit and a gas conduit, a fluidized bed oxidation furnace for oxidizing magnetite to be converted into hematite through steam provided from the fluidized reduction furnace, and a hydrogen processing unit for processing hydrogen generated by the oxidation reaction of magnetite in the fluidized bed oxidation furnace.

A direct reduction process comprises providing a shaft furnace of a direct reduction plant to reduce iron oxide with reducing gas; providing a direct reduced iron melting furnace; and coupling a discharge chute between a discharge exit of the direct reduced shaft furnace and an inlet of the direct reduced iron melting furnace; wherein direct reduced iron and the reducing gas from the shaft furnace flow through the discharge chute and the reducing gas controls the melting furnace atmosphere to reducing environment.

A coupling system of copper slag recycling and CO.sub.2 mineralization process based on industrial solid waste includes the following steps: obtaining copper slags, performing a slag forming treatment, obtaining reforming slags, obtaining sponge iron, coupling the reforming slag with a CO.sub.2 mineralization process based on industrial solid waste, and coupling the CO.sub.2 generated in the process of obtaining sponge iron with the CO.sub.2 mineralization process based on industrial solid waste. The system includes a slag forming treatment device, a secondary treatment device, a first coupling device, and a second coupling device. The coupling system couples the recycling of copper slag with the existing CO.sub.2 mineralization process based on industrial solid waste. Various production lines can be organically integrated in a green and clean manner for both reforming slag and flue gas.

A briquette cooling conveyor system includes an apron pan conveyor. The apron pan conveyor includes: an apron pan with openings adapted to drain water from the apron pan conveyor, an apron pan upper, carry strand, and an apron pan lower, return strand. The briquette cooling conveyor system further includes a carriage side flushing hopper positioned between the apron pan upper, carry strand and the apron pan lower, return strand, and the carriage side flushing hopper is configured to capture fines and water from the system.