MME 309

Lecture 05

Physico-chemical properties of slag 1

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Lecture Objective
This lecture introduces the blast furnace slag formation, and its
structure and properties.

Lecture Outcomes
After completion of this lecture, students should be able to
1. explain the structure of slag and electro-chemical nature of slag-
metal reaction.
2. examine the furnace performance by analysing the nature of
the slag.
3. Interpret the kinetics of slag-metal reaction.

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Blast Furnace Slag

 Ores – Metal + Impurity Oxides (gangue)

 Gangue is removed by the addition of flux as slag
 Impurities in iron ores and coke ash are mainly acidic silica and
alumina
 Fluxes: lime and magnesia
 Other components = less than 5% (FeO, MnO, TiO2, S and others)

Slag Structure:

Liquid slags – homogeneous melts of oxides of silicon and other elements and
possess electrical properties.
Crystal analysis of solid silica  Si occupies the centre of a
tetrahedron surrounded by
4 O atoms

 Each O is bonded with 2 Si

atoms and the network is
continuous in three
dimension

 Si atoms has 4 charges

 Each tetrahedron, SiO4

carries 4 negative charges
i.e. (SiO4)-4

 Solid structure remain

unchanged
(a) Solid SiO2 (b) molten silica
 Molten state silica structure
O white atoms and Si black atoms become distorted but most
of the corner remain shared
Addition of CaO, MgO oxides to molten silicon, breakdown the three dimensional
Si-O network into silicate ions (driving force- attraction between Si and O)
Two silicon-oxygen bond are opened up as the following:

 As the metallic oxides are added more, the Si-O bonds break
 The viscosity of the acidic melt decreases as the network gradually breaks
 Finally no corners are shared
 Stoichiometric composition is 2CaO/SiO2 or 2MgO/SiO2
Electro-chemical Nature of Slag-Metal Reaction:

 Metal is non-polar
 Molten slag is ionic in character
 Transfer of an element from metal to slag is accompanied with anodic reaction

To preserve electro-neutrality of the slag, a cathodic reaction must occur with the
deposition of an element in the metal
Similarly following elements from iron can transfer

Reactions occur at above 12000C in liquid state

The important elements of in ironmaking is Si, Mn and S

Silicon- the reaction:

Manganese- the reaction:

Sulphur- the reaction:

Slag Basicity
Acidic Oxides = accept oxygen and form anion complexes in melts, e.g. SiO2, Al2O3
Basic oxides = donate oxygen and breakdown the anion complexes, e.g. CaO,
MgO, FeO, MnO etc.

Basicity of the slag = CaO/SiO2 or (CaO+MgO)/(SiO2+Al2O3)

Slag Viscosity
 The entry of O ions from metal oxide the Si-O bond breakdown and the size of
the network decreases accompanied with a lowering of the viscosity of liquid
slags

 A low viscosity when the ratio O/Si exceeds 4.

 Alumina and silica increase the viscosity, while lime and magnesia decrease
the viscosity
Summary of Slag property:

1. Slag viscosity increases with the

decrease of temperature

2. The higher the basicity ratio

lower the viscosity, above the
liquidus temperature

3. At higher temperature the

difference in viscosity between
slags becomes less than at lower
temperature

4. The variation in the viscosity with

temperature above liquidus is
greatest for slags of low basicities
Kinetics of Slag-Metal Reactions
Overall reaction rate will be controlled by the slowest of the following steps
a. Transport of reactants from the bulk phase, slag or metal to the reaction
interface through a thin boundary layer
b. Reaction at the interface
c. Transport of products from interface to the bulk phase, slag or metal through a
thin boundary layer

At high temperature, chemical reaction is very high and therefore the reactions are
diffusion controlled

 Diffusivities of
elements in iron is
higher than in the
slag

 The activation
energy of diffusion
in slag is higher
than in iron
The rate constant in Eq. 2.60 depends on the temperature only and not on the flow conditions
 Major slag-metal reactions in the blast furnace are of reduction-oxidation of Si,
Mn, S and minor of Cr and Ti
 These reactions occur at the bosh and tuyere regions and reach the hearth when
the iron droplets pass through the slag layer