Method for producing direct reduced metal material, comprising the steps: a) charging metal material (142) to be reduced into a furnace space (120); b) providing heat and a reducing gas into the furnace space (120), so that heated reducing gas heats the charged metal material (142) to a temperature high enough so that metal oxides present in the charged metal material (142) are reduced, in turn causing water vapour to be formed; and c) condensing and collecting the water vapour formed in step c in a condenser (280); The method is characterised in that, in step a), the metal material (142) is charged onto a gas-permeable floor (151), in that the reducing gas is circulated in a closed loop upwards through said floor (151), through the charged metal material (142), and further via said condenser (280) and a gas forced circulation device (250), and in that the method further comprises the step d) supplying additional reducing gas to achieve and/or maintain a predetermined pressure in said furnace space (120). The invention also relates to a system.

In a method for producing a molten steel according to one aspect of the present invention, the solid-state direct reduced iron contains 3.0% by mass or more of SiO.sub.2 and Al.sub.2O.sub.3 in total and 1.0% by mass or more of carbon. A ratio of a metallic iron to the total iron content contained in the solid-state direct reduced iron is 90% by mass or more, and an excess carbon content Cx is 0.2% by mass or more to the carbons contained in the solid-state direct reduced iron. The method includes a step in a first furnace of melting 40 to 100% by mass of the solid-state direct reduced iron, and separating a molten pig iron having a carbon content of 2.0 to 5.0% by mass and a temperature of 1350 to 1550° C. and a slag having a basicity of 1.0 to 1.4 and a step in a second furnace of melting a remainder of the solid reduced iron together with the molten pig iron separated in the first furnace and blowing oxygen onto the molten material to decarburize into a molten steel.

The use of pellets comprising one or more thermoplastic material(s) of more than 40%, based on the total dry weight of the pellets and one or more cellulosic material(s) of more than 20%, based on the total dry weight of the pellets, as a reducing agent in a process for making pig iron in a blast furnace. The pellets can be provided in unground form, as a partial replacement of coke through the top of the blast furnace, or can be provided as reducing agent in the raceway in an amount of higher than 10 kg/ton iron.

Methods and systems for producing steel or similar molten-iron-containing materials in melting or smelting furnaces utilizing pre-reduced iron ore, known also as direct reduced iron (DRI) or sponge iron, wherein the emission of CO.sub.2 and other greenhouse gases is significantly low. Such methods and systems are based on producing DRI in a direct reduction furnace with a reducing gas comprising hydrogen; melting at least a portion of the DRI in a melting furnace in order to generate hot gases; producing steam and/or hot water using the heat contained in the hot gases. From the steam and/or hot water hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, at least a portion of which is fed to the direct reduction furnace as a component of the reducing gas to produce the DRI.

The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments to a method for steel production, the method comprising forming a hydrogen and a carbon from a natural gas using thermal plasma electrolysis; reducing iron ore fines with the H.sub.2 to form an iron briquette; melting the briquette iron from the furnace to form a melted iron and melted non-metallic slag; separating the non-metallic slag from the melted iron in the furnace; combining the carbon and the melted iron in a furnace to form a carbon black and iron mixture; and alloying the melted iron with the carbon black to form a steel.

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.

The invention relates to a process for producing low-nitrogen crude steel. This process includes melting directly reduced iron and/or scrap in a melting furnace with arc resistance heating to give a metallic melt and a slag. The metallic melt is removed from the melting furnace and used to charge a converter. The metallic melt is refined in the converter to give liquid crude steel. The liquid crude steel is tapped having a nitrogen content [N] of not more than 50 ppm, especially of not more than 30 ppm.

The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments to a method for steel production, the method comprising forming a hydrogen and a carbon from a natural gas using thermal plasma electrolysis; reducing iron ore fines with the H.sub.2 to form an iron briquette; melting the briquette iron from the furnace to form a melted iron and melted non-metallic slag; separating the non-metallic slag from the melted iron in the furnace; combining the carbon and the melted iron in a furnace to form a carbon black and iron mixture; and alloying the melted iron with the carbon black to form a steel.

A production method of pig iron using a blast furnace with a tuyere includes: charging a first layer containing an iron ore material and a second layer containing coke alternately in the blast furnace; and reducing and melting the iron ore material in the charged first layer while injecting an auxiliary reductant into the blast furnace by hot air blown from the tuyere, in which: an aggregate for letting through the hot air to a central portion of the blast furnace is blended into the first layer; and the aggregate contains a reduced iron molded product obtained through compression molding of reduced iron.