Selective Reduction of Phosphorus from Manganese Ore to Produce Ferromanganese Alloy with Low Phosphorus Content

• Published in: Journal of sustainable metallurgy 2019-09, Vol.5 (3), p.362-377
• Main Authors: Shin, Dong Jun, Gao, Xu, Ueda, Shigeru, Kitamura, Shin-ya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alloys; Basicity; Diminishing marginal utility; Downsizing; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Ferromanganese; Graphite; Iron and steel making; Manganese ores; Mass balance; Melt temperature; Metallic Materials; Mixing ratio; Phosphorus; Pig iron; Silicon dioxide; Slag; Smelting reduction; Sustainable Development; Sustainable Iron and Steelmaking; Thematic Section: Sustainable Iron and Steelmaking
• ISSN: 2199-3823; 2199-3831
• DOI: 10.1007/s40831-019-00227-9

The authors proposed the selective reduction of P from steelmaking slag to enable the recycling of steelmaking slag for the sintering process, and for the extraction of P and Mn separately. By decreasing the basicity of the slag and increasing the temperature of the reduction, Fe and P were reduced to the metal, while most of the Mn remained in the slag. In this study, this selective reduction technique was applied to a kind of Mn ore to remove P. The influences of the different mixing ratios of graphite, SiO 2 , and pig iron as well as the temperature on the reduction behavior were investigated. By adding SiO 2 as a slag modifier to produce an acidic slag with a low melting temperature and adding graphite and pig iron as a reductant and receiver, respectively, the selective reduction of P without the reduction of Mn was achieved for Mn ore. When the slag obtained after the selective reduction of Mn ore was used in the smelting reduction process to produce the ferromanganese alloy, a significant decrease in the P content of ferromanganese was estimated through a mass balance calculation. Therefore, the selective reduction of P from Mn ore has the potential to produce high-grade ferromanganese alloys with low P content.