Development of the smelting technology of complex aluminum-chrome-silicon-containing ASC alloy from substandard raw materials

Scientists of the Chemical-Metallurgical Institute named after Zh.  Abishev develop new types of highly effective alloys based on resource-saving technologies that allow the complex processing of natural and technogenic raw materials, such as carbonaceous waste, chrome ore fines, etc. Therefore, it has led to the creation of a onestage, slag-free and non-waste technology with the maximum use of all useful charge components. With disappearance of rich ore reserves, as well as the expansion of demand for raw materials and the development of technology, the rich ores are replaced by poorer and substandard ones that require new methods of processing. The maximum use of raw materials and industrial waste, if this is economically justified, is one of the basic requirements for the technology. This task is closely intertwined, and in many cases coincides with another task – the development of integrated methods of raw materials processing, which, in the general production cycle, allows using, if possible, all useful elements of raw materials. The main objective of the study is to find ways to improve the use of sub-standard chrome ore. As a reducing agent in the electrothermal smelting of the ACS alloy, instead of expensive coke, without which no process of carbothermic smelting is required, a cheap high-ash Borly coal was used. The coal ash, which mainly consists of silica and alumina, is an additional source of silicon and aluminum in the alloy. This technology will be simple and allows regarding substandard chromium ore as a complex metallurgical raw material, since not only chrome is used, but also the components of the waste rock – silicon and aluminum. As a result of the complete reduction of all charge oxides, this technology will make it possible to obtain a complex alloy of ACS with an approximate chemical composition: 39  –  43  % of chromium, 23  –  27  % of silicon, 7  –  10  % of aluminum. The transition of the main components of the charge to the alloy will be: 82  –  85  % of chromium, 68  –  70  % of silicon, 59  –  60  % of aluminum. In this paper, the results of experimental studies on the production of a complex alloy of ACS (aluminum-chromium-silicon) from high-ash coals of the Borly deposit and chrome ore minerals of the Donskoi GOK are presented. The course of furnace operation is described with a lack, excess, and also the calculated amount of the reducing agent. The ways of eliminating the upset in furnace operation are shown.