An Improved Process for the Production of Low-Carbon Ferromanganese in the Electric Arc Furnace

Low-carbon ferromanganese (LC-FeMn) is an essential ingredient for making high-strength low-alloy steel and stainless steel. The conventional industrial-scale silicothermic method for the production of LC-FeMn comprises several energy intensive complex steps consuming about 2000 kWh/ton. We have att...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals 2020-08, Vol.73 (8), p.2105-2111
Main Authors: Randhawa, Navneet Singh, Minj, Rajesh Kanyut
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Basicity
Carbon
Chemistry and Materials Science
Corrosion and Coatings
Electric arc furnaces
Energy consumption
Ferromanganese
High strength low alloy steels
Manganese
Materials Science
Metallic Materials
Metallurgy
Original Article
Silicon dioxide
Smelting
Stainless steels
Tribology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Low-carbon ferromanganese (LC-FeMn) is an essential ingredient for making high-strength low-alloy steel and stainless steel. The conventional industrial-scale silicothermic method for the production of LC-FeMn comprises several energy intensive complex steps consuming about 2000 kWh/ton. We have attempted an improved silicothermic process, which is based on a single step smelting of optimized charge mix in the electric arc furnace. Thermochemical simulation of the smelting process by FactSage 6.4 showed significant effect of the charge mix basicity ( B  = CaO/SiO 2 ) on manganese, iron, silicon and phosphorous distribution between the metal and slag. The optimum basicity was found to be 1.5 at the charge mix ratio i.e., Mn ore/lime/SiMn of 1:1:0.6 in the smelting tests. Under optimum conditions, the energy consumption was about 690 kWh/ton. This approach has potential benefits for the ferromanganese industry in terms of simpler and energy efficient process.
ISSN:0972-2815
0975-1645
DOI:10.1007/s12666-020-02010-x