Effect of Temperature on Magnesium Vapor Condensation in Inert Carrier Gas

Abstract

The process of magnesium extraction by silicothermic process is in vacuum, which leads to discontinuous production. The condensation of magnesium vapor in inert gas is an important step to realize continuous magnesium production. In this paper, the condensation behavior of magnesium vapor in inert carrier gas is studied. The effects of temperatures on the condensation phenomenon, temperature in condensation zone, direct recovery rate of condensation, and microstructure of magnesium vapor were investigated. The results show that three different condensation appearance can be obtained by magnesium condensation in argon gas conditions, and the size has significant difference, and large particles of condensed magnesium are more than 500 μm, small particles of magnesium from 50 to 100 μm and powdered magnesium less than 10 μm. With the increase of temperature, the initial condensation temperature of magnesium vapor increases from 680.2 to 745.1 °C, small particles of magnesium increases, while the powdered magnesium keeps constant; the direct recovery rate of large particles of magnesium decreases from 27.1 to 15.4%, and the direct recovery rate of condensed magnesium of small particles increases; higher purity of magnesium can be obtained at different temperatures, which can provide theoretical support for continuous magnesium production process.