Forno aprimorado para estudo de processos de redução carbotérmica de minérios incentivada por microondas.

Abstract

A device for microwave enhanced carbothermic reductions which permits the full control of microwave power irradiated was built. This equipament allows the measurement of effectively applied microwave power to the charge in process, the simultaneous records of its temperature and mass loss, and good reproducibility of operation parameters, is introduced by this paper. This equipment was designed to simultaneously satisfy the technical requirements for the carbothermic reduction of ores and for the microwave irradiation of metallurgical materials. This prototype works with a 2.45 GHz microwave generator with variable power up to 3 kW. It also allows acquisition of temperature and mass loss for the material under carbothermic reduction. It works under argon gas atmosphere. Operational tests for iron ore reduction with charcoal were performed. Kinetic curves of iron ore reduction and effective consumption of microwave power curves were determined. These results made possible to perform an analysis of actual energy consumption for enhanced microwave iron ore carbothermic reduction.