Study on the dissolution of lime and dolomite in converter slag

Abstract: In the present study, the dissolution mechanism and rate of lime, limestone and dolomite in converter slag was studied. Lime dissolution in stagnant slag was studied first and dissolution of lime, limestone and dolomite under forced convection were carried out by new experimental setup.Dissolution of different CaO samples into stagnant converter slags was carried out in a closed tube furnace at 1873K. In the case of CaO-‘FeO’-SiO2 slag, the dissolution of CaO rod in the stagnant slag was retarded after the initial period (2 minutes). A dense layer of 2CaO∙SiO2 was found to be responsible for the total stop of the dissolution. It could be concluded that constant removal of the 2CaO∙SiO2 layer would be of essence to obtain high dissolution rate of lime. In this connection, it was found necessary to study the dissolution of lime in moving slag.In order to obtain reliable information of lime dissolution under forced convection, the commonly used rotating rod method was examined. Both CFD calculation and cold model experiments showed evidently that the mass transfer due to radial velocity introduced by forced convection was zero if the rod was centrally placed in a cylindrical container. A new experimental design was therefore developed. A cube was placed in the crucible and stirred by Mo rod along with slag. The whole system could be quenched in order to maintain the state of the system at high temperature. A linear relationship between normalized length and time was obtained for lime dissolution. Different lime samples showed big difference in dissolution rate. It was found that the main mechanism of CaO dissolution in slag was due to the removal of 2CaO∙SiO2 layer.Decomposition and dissolution of limestone and dolomite in slag at 1873 K were studied. The decomposition was carried out both in argon and in slag under argon atmosphere. The decomposition process was simulated using Comsol. The results showed evidently that the decomposition of limestone and dolomite was controlled mostly by heat transfer.It was also found that the decomposition of limestone product: CaO had very dense structure, no matter the sample was decomposed in slag or in argon. The slow decomposition and the dense CaO layer would greatly hinder the dissolution of lime in the slag. The present results clearly indicate that addition of limestone instead of lime would not be beneficial in converter process.Discontinuous 2CaO∙SiO2 layer along with MgO∙Fe2O3 particles was found on the surface of the dolomite sample. Some 2CaO∙SiO2 islands were found in the vicinity of the sample in the slag, which revealed therefore that the dissolution was dominated by the peeling-off of the layer of 2CaO∙SiO2-MgO∙Fe2O3 mixture. 2CaO∙SiO2, (Mg, Fe)Oss along with super cooled liquid phases were found inside dolomite sample close to the surface. 2CaO∙SiO2 phase was replaced gradually by 3CaO∙SiO2 towards the centre of the decomposed sample.