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Process — Binding Solutions

Process

We assist the steel industry reduce emissions of CO2 and other harmful gases while also improving financial and operating performance.

BSL’s Cold Agglomerated Pellets (“CAPs”) can be used to replace standard indurated or sintered materials in all current and emerging iron making processes. Our technology can also be used to convert fine waste into valuable materials that can be added back to the furnace.

Cold agglomeration

In iron making technologies, iron ore fines are first agglomerated and heated to 1,000°C or more to create pellets or sinter. This process step is required for the efficient and economic operation of iron making in subsequent processes.

Our cold agglomeration technology uses proprietary binders and our proprietary agglomeration processes to produce iron ore pellets without using high temperatures, thus saving energy and reducing emissions compared to existing processes. At the same time, our CAPs match or exceed the performance of conventional products.

How it works

Benefits

BSL’s cost-effective small scale plant delivers significant environmental, commercial and performance benefits along the iron ore and steel production chain.

Environmental

BSL’s cold agglomeration technology replaces traditional sintering and induration processes, which involve heating primary materials to 1,000° C or more. We:

  • Drive reductions of up to 80% in energy usage
  • Cut carbon dioxide (CO2e) emissions by up to 80%
  • Enable recycling of waste fines from metals production into valuable pellets

Commercial

Our technology delivers significant commercial benefits for miners and pellet producers by:

  • Upgrading iron ore fines into higher value products that meet industry specifications (ISO), cutting waste and enabling production from previously uneconomic deposits
  • Delivering very large reductions in capex of up to 70% per 1 Mtpa of production
  • Enabling rapid scalability through our modular processing approach
  • Ability to build a cost-effective small scale plant

Performance

Our cold agglomerated pellets deliver performance improvements over indurated or sinter pellets in the steel furnace:

  • Greater productivity as the reduction point is achieved more rapidly
  • Improved operational stability by cutting levels of fine waste material