I have been doing research on the effects of titanium on the operation of cold
blast charcoal furnaces. In particular I have taken slag samples from the
Albemarle IW, South Garden, Virginia, USA (1770-72). The samples have been
subjected to PIXE and SEM by the Univ. of Delaware and Bradford Univ.,
respectively. The slag contains large amounts of titanium and considerable iron
prills.
My research has indicated that the primary effect of titaniferrous ore, in a
reducing atmosphere, is to increase the liquidous temperature of the slag and
its viscosity. Two effects of a viscous
slag are to retard the descent of the charge in the stack and to impede the flow
of hot CO gas up the stack. If this is severe enough the entire process stops,
a frozen stack. There is evidence that Albemarle froze its stack at least
twice.
But what if the process was not entirely halted? In that case the reaction
would occur farther down the blast furnace column. If it occurred deep enough
the formation of the liquid slag would not occur prior to the reduction of all
of the wustite (FeO) to metallic iron. The Albemarle slag is not typical glassy
blast furnace slag, but more closely resembles bloomery or finery slag. Neither
the SEM nor the PIXE was able to pick up crystalline phases, rather they gave
only data on the amounts of each element present. Is it possible that what
formed was a fayalitic slag? How would I go about checking?
James H. Brothers IV
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