Enhancing filtration efficiency: A study on moisture reduction in iron ore concentrates

Filtration is one of the Dewatering unit operations used in an Iron ore beneficiation plant to reduce the moisture % of the concentrated slurry. The moisture content of 9.50±0.50 % is desirable for Iron ore Pelletization plants to achieve desired green pellets for producing the required Tumbler Index. JSW Steel Limited includes beneficiation operation of capacity 23.6 MTPA. The integrated steel plants receive the iron ore resources from the local mines leading to large dissimilarities in the ore nature lead to beneficiation complex.  which will finally increase the cost of pellet production affects the pellet quality. The moisture reduction in the iron ore concentrate filtration depends on solids concentration of the feed slurry, slurry flow rate (L/min), feed duration (min), density of the slurry, filter pressure (bar), filter hold time (min), air flow rate (L/min). In this paper, an attempt has been made to optimize the above said variables to obtain the filter cake of <10% moisture for pellet manufacturing. The validation study was done using statistical tools. The study resulted a final cake moisture 9.75 % suited for the quality pellet making operations.