Effect of Bath Environment and Charge Material on the Removal of Impurities from the Pig Iron Melt Using Laboratory Scale (2 kg) Electric Arc Furnace

Abstract

In this work, the effect of different modes of lime charging and plasma exposure on the removal of impurities from the pig iron melt was studied. Pig iron melt was prepared in a 2 kg capacity electric arc furnace. Fluxed direct reduced iron (DRI) (~ 80%Reduced (R) and 8-Basicity (CaO/SiO2) pellets were taken into consideration in this study. The liquid melt was exposed to different plasma (air, nitrogen and hydrogen) environments for reaction times of 15 min. In the current study, nitrogen is used to provide neutral and hydrogen is used to provide a reducing environment on the top of the melt inside the furnace. Lime was charged in the powder form as pure and in the form of flux as reduced pellets (fluxed DRI). Results showed that phosphorous removal is negligible in all the cases while sulphur removed a maximum of ~ 91% in the case of nitrogen and hydrogen plasma and lime charging as powder. © 2021, The Indian Institute of Metals - IIM.