Kinetics of reduction of synthetic chromite with carbon.

Abstract

Synthetic Chromite was prepared and reduction studies were carried out with different amounts of carbon in the mixture in the temperature range 1150-1300°C. Partially reduced material was analysed by X-ray diffractometry which indicated the presence of Fe, Cr2O3, unreduced chromite, Cr3O4 and residual graphite. An analysis of the results on the basis of quasi steady state equation for diffusion control through product layer, phase boundary reaction and unsteady state diffusion of oxygen, reveal, that the process can best be described by diffusion control of oxygen towards the surface of individual particles with fast reaction at the surface. Activation energies for this diffusion process was estimated to be about 57kcal/mol. This does not change with the carbon content in the initial reduction stage (upto 25%), investigated in this work.