(PS174)Electrical Deoxidation of Molten Nickel by Oxygen Pump Using Zirconia Solid Electrolyte

摘要

Deoxidation of molten steel is one of the most important parts of steelmaking process. Conventionally, steel is refined mainly in ladle furnace, where the deoxidizers such as Al and Si are added to reduce oxygen concentrations to a lower level. These elements can react with dissolved oxygen in the molten steel and form stable oxides. Most of these oxide inclusions then are absorbed in the slag and removed from molten steel. However, it is virtually impossible to remove these inclusions completely since some inclusions are too slight to float in molten steel promptly. These remained inclusions can cause internal and surface defects and material degradation. For avoiding the effects of inclusions, it is necessary to consider a method without deoxidizers addition. Previous studies [1] show that adding external constant voltage to guide oxygen ions flow from high chemical potential position to the lower through zirconia solid electrolyte can decrease the oxygen concentrations efficiently and this method, called electrical deoxidation, does not include any reaction to form such fine particles. This research aims to verify the feasibility of electrical deoxidation at high temperature by using molten nickel and its alloys.