Carbon-Slag Reaction Kinetics - Saturation Injection Rate and Available Reaction Surface Area

The use of oxygen in electric arc furnace steelmaking is tied to the use of fossil fuels, and slag foaming. The current work examines the kinetics of carbon injection into EAF slags especially the saturation injection rate and available reaction area in the slag foam. Based on individual rate data and experimental gasification rates of carbon in the slags, the available reaction surface area in the gas bubbles was found to be around 1900¬4700 cm2.kg-slg-1 for carbon injection into EAF like slags at appropriate injection rates and steel making temperatures. The ratio of number of bubbles to number of particles is 1 to 17 and the weights of carbon per unit reaction area are 0.001-0.008 gC-cm-2. Using the relationship between active reaction area and x supplied in this study, the gasification rates of carbon in slags can be estimated with gas-slag interfacial reaction rates.