SHS Technology for Composite Ferroalloys. 1. Metallurgical SHS: Nitrides of Ferrovanadium and Ferrochromium

The development of specialized self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) for complex ferroalloys used in steel smelting and in blast-furnace technology is discussed. To that end, a new approach to the SHS process has been conceived: the metallurgical SHS process, in which the basic raw material consists of various metallurgical alloys including dusty waste from ferroalloy production. In that case, synthesis involves exchange exothermal reactions. The product is a composite based on the initial inorganic compounds; the binder is iron or an iron alloy. Depending on the state of the initial reagents, the metallurgical SHS processes may be gas-free, gas-absorbing, or gas-liberating. For each case, the combustion conditions will be very different. Thermal matching may be used in organizing the metallurgical SHS process in systems that are not strongly exothermal. The self-propagating high-temperature synthesis of nitrided ferrovanadium and ferrochrome is investigated. It is shown that the phase composition of the initial alloy strongly affects the combustion of ferrovanadium in nitrogen. In the nitriding of σ ferrovanadium, transformation of the intermetallide to an α solid solution is activated on reaching the phase-transition temperature (~1200°C). The composite structure of the nitriding products of ferrovanadium is formed under the influence of solid–liquid droplets consisting of molten iron and solid vanadium nitride. Solid-phase reaction of ferrochrome with nitrogen facilitates high degrees of nitriding. The combustion rate of ferrochrome on nitriding during coflow filtration, as in chromium, increases with increase in the nitrogen flow rate. The degree of nitriding of the ferrochrome in forced filtration (4.7–7.5% N) is much less than that in natural filtration (8.8–14.2% N).