A Brief History Of Ferrochrome

In 1821, P. Berthier heated a mixture of charcoal, chromium oxide, and iron oxide in a crucible to produce ferrochrome. This method was used until 1857 when E.C. Fremy smelted Tasmanian iron and chromium ore in a blast furnace to obtain Tasmanian pig iron containing 7% to 8% Cr. Between 1870 and 1880, the chromium iron produced by blast furnaces contained 30% to 40% Cr and 10% to 20% C. H. Moissan did a lot of work on smelting ferroalloys in electric furnaces and published a report in 1893 on the production of high carbon ferrochrome containing 67% to 71% Cr and 4% to 6% C by reducing chromium ore in electric furnaces. Replacing blast furnaces with electric furnaces for smelting high carbon ferrochromium is a significant progress. In 1886, E.G. Odelstjerna described Sweden's production of high carbon ferrochromium containing 70% Cr using an electric furnace.

From 1906 to 1940, F.M. Becket and his collaborators carried out the process of producing low-carbon ferrochromium from silicon reduced chromite. Test and produce in a 500kW single-phase double electrode electric furnace (furnace output 400kg) to a 12000kW three-phase electric furnace (furnace output 10t) to meet the needs of stainless steel production. Around 1920, the Swedish Terelkhtan Ferroalloy Plant developed a three-step process for producing low-carbon ferrochromium. Electrothermal method, also known as Swedish method. In 1939, R. Perrin obtained a patent for the production of low-carbon ferrochromium by reacting liquid silicon ferrochromium alloy with chrome ore lime melt. Commonly known as the Coulomb method, also known as the heat exchange method. This method has been continuously improved and has become the main method for producing low-carbon ferrochromium. In 1949, H. Erasmus obtained a patent for the production of 0.01% low-carbon ferrochromium using vacuum solid-state decarburization method. It produces Sim Plex Ferrochrome at Union Carbide's Ma rietta plant.