India is an agricultural country and near about 500 MT of agricultural wastes are generated each year. India has huge reserves of low-grade iron ore fines. Therefore, considering the availability of these two, the present study mainly focuses on utilization of solid waste in iron and steel industry; also, biomass being carbon-neutral fuel, promotes mitigation of environmental issues. To carry out this study, agricultural wastes like groundnut shell and corn cob which contain more than 70% of volatile matter were considered. Hence, an attempt has been taken to utilize this volatiles as well as char (prepared at 350 degrees C) of corn cob and groundnut shell as a reducing agent for reduction of iron ore pellets. Maximum reduction percentage was achieved at 1000 degrees C and 75 min using corn cob as a reductant, i.e. 78.38% with its volatile and 92.01% using its char. Higher intensity of elemental iron is also reflected by X-ray Diffraction analysis of reduced pellets. Further, cost estimation of reduction of iron ore pellets was also done using both the reducing agents, which signifies that the reduction process using biomass volatiles is much more economical than biochar. The total cost of producing DRI from corn cob volatiles is 56% less than coal followed by groundnut shell volatiles 53.36% and minimum in the case of groundnut shell char 36.17%.
