Effect of Charge Composition on Metallurgical Silicon Smelting Indices in Electric-Arc Furnaces

摘要

It is shown that preparation of silicon at high temperature from silicon-containing resources by reduction with carbon in electric-arc furnaces is accompanied by the occurrence of complex physicochemical transformations affecting the main indices of the carbothermal process, i.e., extraction during melting (epsilon(Si)) and end product chemical composition. The expected silicon chemical composition is obtained on the basis of a mathematical model formed by means of Selektor software simulating melting the distribution of elements entering a furnace within the charge for melting products. The predicted silicon quality is confirmed by results of x-ray microanalysis. Analysis is also conducted for the effect of a different ratio of raw material (quartzite and carbon reducing agent) for components in a loaded charge on silicon extraction. The optimum charge composition is determined for end product extraction up to 81.84%.