Slag – Refractory Interactions During Ilmenite Smelting: Thermodynamic Simulation and Experimental Data

The interaction of four types of commonly used refractories (i.e., burned magnesite brick, magnesia carbon brick, corundum castable, and SiC castable) with slag formed in the smelting of titanium (wt. [TiO2] = 80%) in an electric furnace at the Panzhihuan Iron and Steel plant was studied. Erosion of refractories by titanium slag was calculated using the FactSage software program. The experiment was carried out in an electric furnace based on calculation results. Meanwhile, the results of the thermodynamic simulation showed that the interaction of SiC castable with titanium slag formed TiC with a high melting point, which can prevent the slag from penetrating more deeply into the refractory and exhibits good erosion resistance. In terms of erosion resistance to titanium slag, different refractory materials can be arranged in order from most to least erosion resistant as follows: SiC castable → magnesia carbon brick → magnesite brick → corundum castable. The results of theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the experiment results.