Sponge Iron / DRI

Sponge Iron also called Direct reduced iron (DRI), is produced from the direct reduction of iron ore (in the form of lumps, pellets, or fines) to iron by a reducing gas or elemental carbon produced from natural gas or coal. Many ores are suitable for direct reduction. Direct reduction processes can be divided roughly into two categories: gas-based, and coal-based. In both cases, the objective of the process is to drive off the oxygen contained in various forms of iron ore (sized ore, concentrates, pellets, mill scale, furnace dust, etc.), in order to convert the ore to metallic iron, without melting it (below 1200 °C).