China's Refractories

《中国耐火材料》英文版

China's Refractories ›› 2024, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (2): 41-47.DOI: 10.19691/j.cnki.1004-4493.2024.02.007

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Study on Chrome-free Purging Plugs for Steel Ladles

Yunpeng ZHOU1, Wang FENG1, Shankha CHATTERJEE2, Andus BUHR3,*, Sebastian KLAUS3   

  1. 1 Almatis Qingdao Co., Ltd., Qingdao 266510, China;
    2 Almatis Alumina Pvt Ltd., Kolkata 700071, India;
    3 Almatis GmbH, Frankfurt 60528, Germany
  • Online:2024-06-15 Published:2024-07-04
  • Contact: *e-mail: Andus.Buhr@almatis.com
  • About author:Andus Buhr had worked for eight years at the ThyssenKrupp steelworks in Dortmund, Germany as the head of the refractory department before relocating to Almatis in 1998. Andus is Global Technical Director. He has been the chairman of refractory seminars from the German Steel Institute for 30 years and a UNITECR distinguished life member and was the president of UNITECR 2023 in Frankfurt, Germany. Andus earned the Theodore J. Plantje St. Louis Refractories Award in 2017.

Abstract: Purging plug refractories in China typically contain around 3 mass% of super-fine chromium oxide in the matrix in order to improve the performance of the purging plugs, primarily, slag corrosion and wear resistance. Alternatives to chromium oxide containing refractories have gained interest due to health concerns related to the formation of soluble chromium compounds over long storage periods of refractory wastes. Super-ground reactive alumina can replace chromium oxide in purging plug refractories and this paper discussed the new reactive alumina E-SY 88 in comparison to chromium oxide in a typical purging plug castable. The mixing behaviour, wet castable properties, as well as cured, dried, and fired properties at different temperatures up to 1 600 ℃ were compared. In addition, the hot modulus of rupture, creep behaviour, thermal shock resistance and slag corrosion resistance were tested. The microstructure after slag corrosion was investigated by SEM. The results prove that E-SY 88 is an economically viable technical alternative to chromium oxide in purging plug refractories.

Key words: purging plug, alumina-spinel castable, workability, chromium-free, thermal shock resistance