Solid State Reduction of Chromite in High Carbon Ferrochromium-Chromite Composite Pellets

In this paper solid state reduction of high carbon ferrochromium-chromite composite pellets in the temperature range of 900-1350°C was investigated. A two stage reduction mechanism is proposed. The first stage is likely to be controlled by the chemical reaction with activation energy of 127.2kJ/mol. In the second stage, solid state diffusion of carbon through the reaction product layer is suggested to be rate controlling. The activation energy of this stage was calculated to be 93.1kJ/mol. The reduction process was found to be favored by high temperatures as well as high vacuum. The results also show that pre-milling of initial mixture has a negative effect on the reduction degree.