""Investigation of the Effect of Impurity Type and Amount on Heat Loss in the Sintering Process of Magnesite Ore""

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Author

• mohsen moosavi nezhad

Department of Metallurgy and materials engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Gonabad, Gonabad, Iran

10.22067/jmme.2025.92053.1185

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of impurity type and amount on energy consumption in magnesium sintering furnaces using thermodynamic calculations. Thermodynamic analyses were conducted using the FactSage 6.1 software within the temperature range of 800 to 2000 °C and at a pressure of 1 atm, under isothermal conditions. The results indicate that an increase in the purity of the ore is accompanied by an increase in energy consumption. For instance, in the calcination process at a temperature of 800 °C, increasing the ore purity from 85% to 100% leads to a 16% increase in energy consumption. Meanwhile, at a temperature of 1900°C, the same increase in purity caused a 7% rise in energy consumption. Additionally, the possibility of forming molten compounds such as SiO2.2MgO exists at higher levels of silicon oxide impurities, which results in greater thermal losses during the sintering process. The results of this study show that when the main impurities in magnesite ore are CaO and SiO2, controlling the CaO/SiO2 ratio at around 1.8 can not only reduce energy losses in the furnace but also prevent the formation of magnesium silicate compounds and increase the purity of MgO in the final product.

Keywords

• Magnesite Ore
• Enthalpy
• Calcium Oxide
• Silicon Oxide
• Sintering

Main Subjects

• Extractive Metallurgy

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