Prevention of Ladle Furnace Slag Disintegration Through Different Slag Additives

Ladle refining is a popular secondary metallurgy process and plays a vital role in achieving the desired chemistry and temperature during steelmaking. The slag produced after ladle refining mostly contains dicalcium silicate (C2S). The presence of high C2S in slag leads to the disintegration of slag into fine powder during cooling due to phase transformation of C2S. The adverse impact is that the dust is easily aerated and carried by wind creating environmental pollution and makes the working area unsafe. In this paper, an attempt was made to study the effect of the addition of different additives on the disintegration of slag. Initial laboratory experiments were conducted with different additives such as Colemanite (boron-based mineral), silica-rich synthetic slag, and a siliceous natural occurring mineral perlite. Analysis of slag samples was carried out before and after treatment with additives. Based on the optimized conditions, industrial trials were conducted with different additives, and its success was measured in terms of lumpy slag formation. It was successfully studied that the addition of 10% of perlite during ladle furnace treatment process helped in preventing the slag disintegration by 90%.