A Study of Nickel and Iron Reduction Silicothermic Process by Thermodynamic Simulation

The results of studying the effect of silicon concentration of ferrosilicon: FeSi5 (5% Si), FeSi20 (20% Si), FeSi35 (35% Si), FeSi50 (50% Si), FeSi65 (65% Si) on the degree of nickel (ηNi) and iron (ηFe) reduction of the CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3-FeO-NiO-P2O5 multicomponent oxide system at a temperature of 1500 °C by thermodynamic simulation are given2. The HSC Chemistry 6.12 software package developed by Outokumpu (Finland) was used for the simulation. The chemical compounds Ni3Si and Ni5Si2 with the corresponding thermodynamic characteristics are entered into the database. The calculations were performed by the “Equilibrium Compositions” subroutine at a gas pressure of 1 atm, containing 2.24 m3 N2, as a neutral additive. The obtained modeling results indicate the thermodynamic possibility of nickel and iron reduction from the CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3-FeO-NiO-P2O5 oxide system by silicon of ferrosilicon. The degree of iron reduction increases from 88.8 to 91.4%, with an increase in the silicon concentration of ferrosilicon [Si]FeSi from 5 to 65%. The degree of nickel reduction with an increase in the silicon concentration of ferrosilicon remains almost unchanged and amounts to 99.8-99.7%. The degree of use of silicon is 92.1–94.5%. The chemical composition of the complex alloy – ferrosiliconickel is determined. The obtained simulation results can be used to develop the technology for producing ferrosiliconickel from nickel ore by silicothermic method.