Effect of Modification Treatment for Reduction of Dephosphorization Slag in Hot Metal Bath

To extract the valuable elements from the steel slag, a novel approach has been proposed by modification treatment to provide the stronger driving forces and accelerate the reduction. Three types of dephosphorization steel slags were reduced using carbon-saturated iron bath to extract iron and phosphorus simultaneously. During the process of reduction, slag composition, temperature, and original P2O5 content were investigated respectively. Slag modification treatment, adding either silica or alumina to vary the slag composition, was proven to accelerate the reduction of dephosphorization slag. The equilibrium time can be shortened from 60 to 30 min. Slag modification also allowed the reduction reaction to occur at lower temperature. After slag modification, the original P2O5 content in slag presents a slight difference on reduction process. Almost half of the reduced phosphorus was vaporized within 5 and 20 min. As more and more FeO was reduced, CO gas generation decreased, and evaporation amount of phosphorus therefore decreases. © 2013 Central Iron and Steel Research Institute.