Direct reduced iron

Direct reduced iron is metallic iron made by removing oxygen from iron ore while it remains solid, rather than melting it in a blast furnace. It is commonly used as a feedstock for steelmaking.

Iron ore reduction: The removal of oxygen from iron oxides to produce metallic iron. Direct reduction performs this conversion without melting the ore.
Electric arc furnace: A steelmaking furnace that melts metallic charge using electric arcs between electrodes and the charge. DRI is a common iron-bearing feed for electric arc furnaces.
Blast furnace: A tall furnace that reduces and melts iron ore using coke and hot air to produce liquid iron. Unlike DRI production, a blast furnace melts the iron-bearing burden and yields liquid hot metal.
Green steel: Steel produced with substantially lower greenhouse-gas emissions than conventional routes. DRI made with low-carbon hydrogen can replace coal-based ironmaking in lower-emission steel pathways.
Shaft furnace: A tall reactor in which descending solid materials contact rising hot gases. Shaft furnaces reduce iron ore with counterflowing gases in major DRI processes.
Hot briquetted iron: Direct reduced iron compacted while hot into dense briquettes for safer storage and transport. Briquetting limits DRI's tendency to reoxidize during handling.
Pig iron: A carbon-rich iron product made by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron is liquid when produced and contains substantially more carbon than DRI.
Hydrogen: The chemical element with atomic number one, occurring as a highly flammable diatomic gas. Hydrogen can serve as the reducing agent in DRI production, especially when made with low-carbon energy.
Midrex process: A shaft-furnace direct-reduction process that uses reformed natural gas as its main reducing gas. It is a widely used route for producing direct reduced iron.
Steelmaking: The production of steel from iron-bearing materials by removing impurities and adjusting composition. DRI supplies metallic iron to steelmaking alongside scrap and other charge materials.

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