An Overview of the Reduction Smelting Pr

The blast furnace and direct reduction processes have remained the hallmark of the metallic iron production route for the past decades. The challenges with the blast furnace and direct reduction route range from scarcity of metallurgical coke, high impurity, cumbersome production route, high operation cost, and environmental implications. This study gave an overview of the reduction-smelting process as a third generational alternative for the modern-day iron and steelmaking process whose hallmark is to mitigate the disadvantages that are peculiar to the conventional blast furnace and direct reduction process. This paper gave a broader research perspective to the use of a non-carbonaceous substance and less harmful reducing agents as an alternative energy source instead of the fast depleting metallurgical coke which remains the major source of carbonothermic energy in the blast furnace operation. This review also substantiates the effective usage of the reduction-smelting process as a viable alternative for the iron production route in the metallurgical industry.