Patent ID: 8709128

Claim:
A process for the direct reduction of iron ore, the processing comprising the steps of: a) extracting an off gas from a gravitational furnace for recycling; b) cleaning the off gas from particles and dust in a cleaning system; c) obtaining a de-watered off gas by shifting the carbon oxide (CO) and steam (H 2 O) present in the off gas to CO 2 and H 2 in a first reformation step using a water shift gas reaction; d) processing the de-watered off gas in a compressor or pumping means, e) removing the CO 2 from the de-watered off gas in a second reformation step using a carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) absorber means and a stripping means to form a first syngas essentially comprised of CO and H 2 ; f) removing nitrogen (N 2 ) and carbon oxide (CO) from the first syngas in a third reformation step using a N 2 and CO absorber means to form a second syngas essentially comprised of hydrogen (H 2 ); g) dividing the second syngas into a first flow path and a second flow path; h) mixing the second syngas in the first flow path with natural gas supplied by an external source to form a first gas mix stream; i) heating the second syngas in the second flow path from step g) by exchange of sensible heat gained from the de-watering process of step c) to form a heated syngas; j) heating the first gas mix stream by exchange of sensible heat from the reduced metal product cooling zone; k) extracting the first gas mix stream from a reduced metal product cooling zone in the furnace to form a second gas mix stream supplied to a gas generator; l) heating the second gas mix stream from step k) by injecting oxygen (O 2 ) in a line to form an oxygen (O 2 ) injected gas mixture and leading the oxygen (O 2 ) injected gas mixture to the gas generator; m) processing the oxygen O 2 injected gas mixture in step l) in the gas generator to obtain a first reducing gas mixture and leading the first reducing gas mixture from the gas generator to the furnace; n) mixing the heated syngas in step i) with the first reducing gas mixture in step m) to form a second reducing gas mixture; o) feeding the second reducing gas mixture formed in step n) to the reduction zone of the furnace.