Introduction

Abstract

The development of ferrous metallurgy, the growth of the capacity of blast furnaces (BF) and increased ore consumption required the creation of technology for the agglomeration of natural and fine anthropogenic materials generated during the course of the entire process from iron ore extraction through to iron smelting. The first industrial agglomeration technology, which appeared back in the nineteenth century, was briquetting technology—production of lumps of regular geometric shapes from iron ore fines by applying pressure using different binders or without them, with further drying and firing or curing under natural conditions.