Effect of Sulphur Potential in Reducing Gas on the Reduction Rate of Wustite with Carbon Monoxide

Abstract

Reduction experiments of dense wustite with CO-CO₂ COS mixtures were made in the temperature range of 800 to 1200°C to examine the effects of sulphur and carbon potentials on the reduction behavior.
Below 1 000°C, sulphur having the potential lower than iron sulphidation brought about the formation of dense iron rather than porous iron. Above 1100°C, coarse particles of iron are formed at higher carbon potentials and iron whiskers at lower carbon potentials, under the similar potential of sulphur. The addition of sulphur to CO-CO₂ mixtures rather retards the reduction of wustite, while the addition of sulphur to H₂-H₂O mixtures greatly accelerates the reduction. Furthermore, the relation between the reduction rates and the product morphology was also tried to be interpreted by means of the kinetics.