Innovations in Ferro Alloys Industry and

Emerging Trends of Associated Manganese

Based Raw Materials
Prepared By – M. Mahale

MOIL LIMITED BALAGHAT

MOIL Limited
 Challenges in Ferro Alloy Industry
• India's Ferro Alloy industry forms the backbone of steel and is vitally linked for India's
sustainable growth and development.
• Ferro alloys industry in India has never been globally competitive, despite its rich ore
deposits and low cost manpower, essentially due to
1) Insufficient availability and high cost of electric power
2) Increasing ores and reductants cost
3) Non-availability of low ash, low phos. coke, making import of such coke at a
high cost imperative
4) High-inland logistics cost due to insufficient infrastructural facilities (both
road and rail) for rapid transportation of ore from mines to plants
5) Stiff competition from producers and exporters of Ferro alloys in other
countries like South Africa, Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Australia etc. due to
global trade agreement which has made drastic reduction in customs duty
on imports necessary.
• To over come these challenges innovations are inevitable in the process technology,
plant equipment design, along with frequent changes in product mix, to be more cost-
effective and competitive.

MOIL Limited
 Innovations in FeMn Industry
1. Alternative Reductant in Ferro Alloy Production
 Iron and steel industry, as well as ferroalloy production, contributes to considerable
amount of CO2 due to burning of fossil fuels which is 16% of total industrial emission
 Table 1. Amount of CO2 Emission by Producing 1 kg of Products
Steel FeMn SiMn FeSi
1.83 Kg 1.04-1.15 Kg 1.4-6.9 Kg 2.5-4.8 Kg

For comparison, 1 kg CO2 emissions from these alloys are equal to the mean CO2 emission of 1.18 crore people.
 What is Bio Carbon / Bio Mass ?
 Biocarbon is defined as a carbon-rich solid product resulting from the pyrolysis
conversion of wood residues or other biomass residues by heating the biomass in the
absence of air and within carefully controlled temperatures and timeframes

Recently Tata Steel successfully

conducted the trial of biomass usage in
its Ferrochrome Plant in Athagarh of
Odisha’s Cuttack district on July 2024 to
replace traditional carbon sources as a
part of sustainable development.

Suggestion: FMP of MOIL can use biocarbon as a replacement of Steam Coal

MOIL Limited
 Innovations in FeMn Industry
2. Sintering
• For production of HC FeMn, phosphorous content of the ore should be less and Mn/Fe ratio
should be high. But it has been observed that the phos content in the ore mined is steadily
showing an upward trend and Mn/Fe ratio is also decreasing day by day.
• Process :
1. Sintering is used to agglomerate ore, fines, and fluxes by using a carbon carrier like coke breeze
or coal. The raw materials are mixed and a burner ignites the carbon carrier in the mixture.
2. Wind boxes force air through the mixture while burning carbon supplies the energy for the
process. The high temperature enables an agglomeration by surface melting. The sinter is finally
crushed to lumps and charged into a smelting furnace
Suggestion: According to the study done by
MOIL and R&D center of paramount sinter a
good quality fluxed sinter can be produced
from manganese ore fines of Balaghat / Ukwa.
Tumbling and Abrasion indices of the sinter
was very good.
The high degree of reduction achieved during
sintering indicate that a substantial reduction
of power, reductant, flux and electrode paste
etc. per ton of ferro-manganese produced
would be possible compare to direct smelting
This can be implemented in FMP, Balaghat
MOIL Limited
 Innovations in FeMn Industry
3. Pelletizing and Briquetting
• Due to non availability of high Mn/Fe ,low Phos and low silica Mn ore. Industry has to
adopt for use of manganese ore fines as a alternative. These Mn Ore Fines cannot be
directly added into the submerged arc furnace (SAF) due to causing poor gas
permeability in the burden which will lower the degree of pre-reduction of ore and
subsequently increase the carbon and energy consumption.
• As a result, the manganese ore fines must undergo an agglomeration process by
briquetting or pelletizing to form agglomerates with specific sizes.
 Process : Mn Ore fines along with reducing agent, fluxes and binder like (kaolin or
diatomite) are compacted by force into a lump briquette using pelletizing disk or
pelletizing drum

Suggestion: MOIL can set up pellet

plant to introduce briquettes from
IMB Plant sludge/Hutch(30-35
%Mn).

MOIL Limited
 Innovations in FeMn Industry
3. Pelletizing and Briquetting
• Due to non availability of high Mn/Fe ,low Phos and low silica Mn ore. Industry has to
adopt for use of manganese ore fines as a alternative. These Mn Ore Fines cannot be
directly added into the submerged arc furnace (SAF) due to causing poor gas
permeability in the burden which will lower the degree of pre-reduction of ore and
subsequently increase the carbon and energy consumption.
• As a result, the manganese ore fines must undergo an agglomeration process by
briquetting or pelletizing to form agglomerates with specific sizes.
 Process : Mn Ore fines along with reducing agent, fluxes and binder like (kaolin or
diatomite) are compacted by force into a lump briquette using pelletizing disk or
pelletizing drum

Suggestion: MOIL can set up pellet

plant to introduce briquettes from
IMB Plant sludge/Hutch(30-35
%Mn).

MOIL Limited
 Innovations in FeMn Industry
4. Recovery of Heat from flue gases
• Flue gas temperature of open or semi-closed SAF for production of FeMn is around
500°C to 1100 °C . For 9 MVA Furnace about 35,000 NM3/day of gas passes to the
atmosphere. Hence lot of heat energy is wasted to the atmosphere. Calorific value
of this gas is around 1900 KCaI/M3
• Hence the use of energy recovery systems to reduce power cost is becoming vital.
Example :For Semi-open-type furnaces
The process gases generated are collected
by boiler system to produces 15 tons of
steam per hour, which is converted in a
generator to 2.5 MW electrical power.
This correlates in total to an overall
annual CO2 reduction of 25 000 t. The
client calculated an amortization period of
less than 3.5 years for this investment

Suggestion: MOIL can make an attempt for utilization of flue gas MOIL Limited
 Innovations in FeMn Industry
5. Recycling of Manganese Furnace Dust
• In semi-close SAF, the off gases/ dust are collected by fiber glass filtration bags and stockpiled
• Storage of such furnace dust presents a long-term environmental concern, which has stimulated
a search for technologies to allow its recycling. The furnace dust contains a high concentration of
manganese oxide, which is suitable as feed in the production of manganese alloys.
• A few examples of manganese furnace dust utilization have been reported like

Example : TATA Steel R&D division used Fine and Gas Cleaning Plant (GCP) sludge and ore
fines to be agglomerated using novel stiff vacuum extrusion technology. This was
used as a feedstock for smelting

Suggestion: MOIL can make an attempt for utilization of furnace dust. MOIL Limited