DECARBURIZATION OF MOLTEN IRON UNDER REDUCED PRESSURE

Abstract

in molten iron, especially at ultra low level of carbon content. In order to achieve this, it is required a reduced pressure or vacuum atmosphere or a combination of both with a low oxygen source. From this point of view, the paper presents an experimental work of decarburization of molten iron with oxygen in air under reduced pressure. The investigation was performed in the range of 1623-1723K from 0-120 minutes. The results show a high decarburization of molten iron. The carbon content decreased to 0.016 weight percent (wt. %) after 120 min at 1723 K. In the present work, reaction constant for the decarburization at 1673 K and 1723 K were calculated as 0.0252 min-1 and 0.0470 min-1, respectively. Optical microscopy observation of the sample containing 0.016 wt. % carbon showed a typical ferrite microstructure of ultra low carbon steels. It was concluded that decarburization of molten iron could be conducted in reduced atmosphere to lower the carbon content to an ultra low level.