Production of Aluminum-Silicon Alloy and Ferrosilicon and Commercial Purity Aluminum by the Direct Reduction Process. Second Annual Technical Report for the Period 1978 September 1-1979 December 31

摘要

A new computer program was developed for simultaneously solving heat and mass balance at steady state for a flowing one-dimensional chemical reactor. Bench scale reactor results confirmed that minimum final stage reaction temperature is 1950 to 2000 exp 0 C, depending on the Fe sub 2 O sub 3 concentration in the burden. Additions of Fe sub 2 O sub 3 to the charge produced significant increase in metallic yield. A new bench reactor was designed, built, and operated to facilitate semi-continuous operation, using O sub 2 injection to burn coke supporting the burden, resulting in burden movement. Validity of the equipment and test procedures was demonstrated by successfully operating the reactor as an iron blast furnace at 1500 exp 0 C. Bench scale fractional crystallizer runs were continued to determine the impurity effects of Fe up to 6.9% and Ti up to 1.25% on alloy product purity and yield. High initial impurity concentrations resulted in less pure Al-Si product and product yield below 50% due to Al and Si losses as Fe-Si-Al and Ti-Si-Al intermetallics. Long term testing was continued in the large bench scale membrane cell to evaluate woven cloth membrane and other construction materials, operating procedures, and effects of operating parameters on cell performance. Included in the latter were starting alloy composition, current density, anode-cathode spacing, and electrolyte composition. (ERA citation 06:003916)