Kinetics of Decarburization of Liquid Iron with High Concentration of Carbon

Abstract

A kinetic study of decarburization has been done by blowing CO-CO₂ gas mixtures onto the inductively stirred Fe-C melts under various conditions.
At high carbon contents, the apparent rate of decarburization is independent of carbon concentration and markedly influenced by the flow rate of CO-CO₂ gas mixture. Temperature dependence of the rate is relatively small.
A reaction model involving the counter diffusion of CO and CO₂ in gas phase and the adsorption of CO₂ on the liquid iron surface has been developed. It is concluded that at high carbon contents the rate of decarburization is controlled predominantly by the diffusion rate in gaseous phase. It is also presumed that the rate constant of adsorption of CO₂ on the liquid iron surface is higher than 0.001mol/cm²·Esec·Eatm, which is consistent with the extrapolated value of the reection constant for solid Fe-C alloy.