Effects of Reducing Parameters on the Size of Ferronickel Particles in the Reduced Laterite Nickel Ores
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ICKEL alloy is one of the resources for austenitic stainless steel manufacturing. During the past 20 years, the consumption of laterite nickel ore has been increasing, because laterite is used as raw material for ferronickel alloy smelting.[1,2] The laterite nickel ore can not be concentrated like sulphide, and it must be smelted directly. Crude ferronickel alloy can be produced by the carbothermal reduction of laterite ore-coal composite in a number of commercial pyrometallurgical process,[3–5] including RKEF process, Krupp–Renn Process, and Oheyama process.
XIN JIANG, LIANG HE, DONGWEN XIANG, HAIWEI AN, and FENGMAN SHEN are with the School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, 313#, No. 11, Lane 3, Wenhua Road, Heping District, Shenyang, Liaoning 110819, China. Contact e-mail: [email protected] LIN WANG is with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shenyang Institute of Engineering, Shenyang, Liaoning 110136, China. Manuscript submitted May 29, 2020.
METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B
RKEF process has been widely used for ferronickel production from saprolitic laterite ores.[6] This process is characterized by high energy consumption. In addition, it is inappropriate for processing laterite ores with high iron content and low nickel content. Krupp–Renn process is an energy-saving technology for ferronickel production from saprolitic laterite ores.[7] Oheyama process is basically modification of Krupp–Renn process, by which the mixtures of ferronickel alloy particles and partially melted slag can be extracted. Its most prominent features include low energy consumption and ferronickel granules with little content of impurities. These features let the Oheyama process be a very advantageous method which could supply cheap and handy nickel source for stainless steel manufacturing.[8,9] One key point for the reduction of laterite ore-coal composite is the aggregation and growth of ferronickel particles under the semi-molten state.[10] Therefore, it is necessary to have exact knowledge of the reduction behavior and melting behavior of the laterite ore-coal composite with increasing temperature, because controlling these behaviors is considered to be a key to stable operation.[11,12] Kobayashi et al.[13] investigated the melting behavior of pelletized silicate nickel ore
blended with limestone and anthracite heating up to 1300 °C. Chen et al.[14] investigated the effect of bio-coal on the carbothermal reduction of laterite ore, and they found 1200 °C was the optimal reducing temperature for metallization degree. Higher temperature may result in the re-oxidation of metallic Fe and melting. Li et al.[15] investigated the effects of quaternary basicity on melting behavior and ferronickel particles growth of saprolitic laterite ores in Krupp–Renn process. Lv et al.[16] investigated the effect of sodium sulfate on the preparation of ferronickel from nickel laterite by carbothermal reduction, and they found sodium sulfate was capable of promoting the aggregation and growth of nickel-iron particles considerably
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