A novel industrial‐scale output iron concentrate (TFe ∼ 60%) derived from bauxite residue (iron concentrate BR ) offers potential as an alternative source for the iron industry. This study compares the iron concentrate BR with traditional mill scale and iron ore fines to explore the solid‐state reduction properties. Results show that the iron concentrate BR exhibits significantly higher metallization rates than mill scale or iron ore fines under lower temperatures and shorter durations. Thermogravimetric‐differential scanning calorimeter (TG‐DSC) reveals that the initial reduction temperature of iron concentrate BR is only 774.5°C, with the fastest reduction rate achieved at 927.0°C. This represents a decrease of nearly 200°C in the reduction onset temperature compared to traditional materials such as mill scale and iron ore fines. Specifically, the iron concentrate BR achieved a metallization rate of 66.26% after only 20 min at 1000°C, significantly outperforming mill scale (46.28%) and iron ore fines (46.11%). This high activity is attributed to its mesopore‐dominated pore structure, which optimizes gas diffusion and the reaction process. However, the final metallization iron concentrate BR plateaus near only 90% due to the formation of homogeneous‐like encapsulating structures incorporating elements like Al, Si, and Ti. This result provides theoretical basics for the iron production process using bauxite residue as a raw material.
Cheng et al. (Sun,) studied this question.