KMB - GASFERROSIL PhII - Use of Natural Gas in Ferroalloy and Si production and Ilmenite processing

Use of natural gas in production of Titania slag and Manganese alloys is a part of the industry's long-term innovation work regarding new, sustainable processes. Substitution of coke or coal by natural gas reduces the CO2 emissions in production and broader disadvantages associated with coke production. Additionally, production is carried out at lower temperatures, reducing overall energy consumption. Production of ferroalloys using solid carbon materials is well understood, but not much work is done on using natural gas as reductant in ferroalloy production. Challenges in introducing natural gas to replace solid carbon are mainly related to the fact that the end reduction, e. g. the reduction of MnO to metallic Mn, must be done by carbon, or fixed C, producing CO gas. Alternatively, the reduction may be performed using another metal (Me) with higher affinity to oxygen than the intended product metal, but now the by-product will be an oxide, MeOx. This metal Me must also be produced, generally requiring additional fixed C. We can say that the amount of carbon needed for the end reduction stage is constant or "incompressible". The main consequence of this fact is that it is only the C in the Natural Gas that can be utilised for this purpose, leaving the hydrogen unused. H2 and CO (SynGas) may, however, be utilised in eg. gas-/solid prereduction processes or other processes using SynGas. The feasibility study, GASFERROSIL PhI, included one PhD student working on pre-reduction of ilmenite according to PhI plans and this was continued in PhII. This work has been instrumental in the ongoing work at TiZir to replace coal with hydrogen in their prereduction. The various production processes used in this industry are fundamentally different, and this have massive implications on how and if the use of Natural Gas will be beneficial. Use of Natural Gas on a large scale in this industry will require substantial changes in the production processes in question, and it is probable that in future industrialization it will be beneficiary to form industrial clusters to fully utilise the potentials for use of this resource.

Use of natural gas in production of Titania slag and Manganese alloys is a part of the industry's long-term innovation work regarding new, sustainable processes. Substitution of coke or coal by natural gas reduces the CO2 emissions in production and broad er disadvantages associated with coke production. Additionally, production is carried out at lower temperatures, reducing overall energy consumption. Production of ferroalloys using solid carbon materials is well understood, but not much work is done wher e natural gas is used as reductant. Challenges in introducing natural gas to replace solid carbon are mainly related to the fact that the end reduction, e. g. the reduction of MnO to metallic Mn, must be done by carbon, or fixed C, producing CO gas. Alter natively, the reduction may be performed using another metal (Me) with higher affinity to oxygen than the intended product metal, but now the by-product will be an oxide, MeOx This metal Me must also be produced, generally requiring additional fixed C. We can say that the amount of carbon needed for the end reduction stage is constant or "incompressible". The main consequence of this fact is that it is only the C in the Natural Gas that can be utilised for this purpose, leaving the hydrogen unused. H2 and CO may however be utilised in gas-/solid prereduction processes. The feasibility study, GASFERROSIL PhI, included one PhD student working on pre-reduction of ilmenite according to PhI plans and this will continue in PhII. The various production processes used in this industry are fundamentally different, and this have massive implications on how and if the use of Natural Gas will be beneficial. Use of Natural Gas on a large scale in this industry will require substantial changes in the production process es in question, and it is probable that in future industrialization it will be beneficiary to form industrial clusters to fully utilise the potentials for use of this resource.