Metallurgical silicon carbide for steelmaking: a thermodynamic simulation

Silicon carbide is a unique material produced by the Acheson process, obtaining two main grades: crystal and metallurgical. SIKA® MET, the metallurgical silicon carbide, has gained prominence for steel sectors due to its unique properties, being used as agent for deoxidation and exothermic purposes in steelmaking routes. It has been presented as an alternative to the FeSi75 usage. FeSi75HP and SIKA® MET were agents added to the bath at 298K and the hot metal was at 1873K. The FactSage® simulation studied the deoxidizing effect varying the agent quantity until 10kg added to the bath. The Thermo-Calc® simulation studied the exothermic effect in a fixed proportion of 3kg of agent per ton of steel, using TCOX10 database and EERZ for a kinetic approximation in a ladle. The deoxidation effect between both agents were similar after 3kg of addition. The exothermic effect obtained a small temperature difference of approximately 10 °C between them, associated to the effect of interaction coefficients of Si or heat generation from carbon content. Due to the similarity of deoxidizing and exothermic properties between both agents and high prices usually obtained for FeSi75, silicon carbide could be considered a cost saving agent to be used for steelmaking routes. (author)