Phase Relations in Ferromanganese Production During Prereduction: South African Ores

Abstract

In the steel industry, ferromanganese is an important additive. During the production of ferromanganese the ore goes through prereduction and reduction. The prereduction step is very important, as the degree of reduction during ferromanganese is important. Although many investigations have been conducted on different manganese ores, the current study investigated different phases that formed during prereduction when South African ore was used. The ore was mixed with carbon in excess as the reducing agent, and no fluxes were added while CO gas was blown in the furnace. The temperature was varied from 1000°C to 1200°C with 100°C interval. For each temperature, the time varied from 30 min to 90 min with 30 min interval. The ore to carbon ratio was 4:1. After the experiments, the resulting products were subjected to chemical and phase analysis using XRD, XRF and SEM.