Direct current transferred arc plasma reactor-Its suitability for smelting reduction and refining processes

Abstract

The plasma processing is more versatile than the existing extractive techniques and direct current transferred arc plasma reactors can treat such materials, which are difficult to process. The special feature of DC transferred arc plasma reactor is its ability to obtain long, stable arcs with independent current and voltage control. It poses the potentiality to smelt iron ore fines, iron ore particulates, steel, stainless steel and a varieties of ferro alloys. The hydrogen argon plasma jet produces very high temperature and accelerates the reaction rate of refining processes such as decarburization and denitrogenization of iron-chromium alloys and the argon plasma arc enhances the desulphurization of stainless steel using different fluxes.