Trine senior design project seeks ways to prepare iron more efficiently
May 09, 2024
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Trine University chemical engineering majors, from left, Alexandra Davidson, Annamarie
Hartman and Jake Doyle looked at the composition of iron briquettes that are melted
to make pure iron, to see if different ratios or varieties of materials would reduce
waste. (Photo by Dean Orewiler)
When dealing with millions of tons of metal, you want to work as efficiently as possible.
A senior design project carried out by a group of Trine University chemical engineering
majors attempted to find improvements in the process of producing pure iron at Iron
Dynamics, a division of Steel Dynamics, Inc.
Specifically, Alexandra Davidson of Glenside, Pennsylvania, Jake Doyle of Marengo,
Illinois, and AnnaMarie Lechleidner Hartman of Bryan, Ohio, looked at the composition
of iron briquettes that are melted, to see if different ratios or varieties of materials
would reduce waste.
The group examined ways to optimize the compressibility, which refers to the ability
of the front-end solid mixture to be packed into small briquettes for melting, of
the iron feed.
“As feed compressibility increases, more material can be fit into any given briquette,
allowing for increased production capabilities,” said Hartman. “This project has the
potential to increase compressibility of the feed mixture, resulting in less loose
material upon briquetting the feed and less wasted/recycled material, which would
in turn result in a higher production throughput throughout the entire process of
creating liquid iron and subsequent steel products.”
The briquettes are held together with a mixture of lime and chemical byproducts that
react and act as a glue. The team examined what happened with different ratios of
binder to lime, as well as with different lime varieties.
“We ended up looking at the change in mixture density before and after it had been
compressed to the extent of its capability, using this density difference to characterize
each mixture,” said Doyle.
The group ultimately found there were not enough differences in the compressibility
of the resulting briquettes to advise SDI to adjust their current operating parameters.
Real-world skills
Davidson said team members were attracted to the project by the opportunity to apply
their learning to potentially have a real-world impact.
“One of the most valuable skills we were able to apply throughout this project was
general problem solving,” she said. “We faced many challenges in the process of figuring
out how to test our samples and acquire meaningful results. Ultimately, we came back
to the idea that sometimes the simplest solution is the best one, veering away from
technology and to some more crude techniques to get the best results possible.”
Though team members are headed in vastly different directions — Hartman is going to
work for SDI as a process metallurgist, Doyle will return to Trine this fall to complete
a double-major in chemical engineering and mathematics and Davidson will compete her
MBA at Trine — they said the skills they learned and put into practice will help them
in their future pursuits.
“The project management, problem-solving and teamwork skills we were able to develop
over the course of this project will benefit us all greatly as we continue forward
in our careers,” Davidson said.
Four Trine University chemical engineering students got paid to stay in school this summer, gaining invaluable research experience while contributing toward new technologies aimed at improving our environmental impact.