The Paton Welding Journal, 2025, #2, 24-29 pages
Producing a wüstite melt by thermal decomposition of hematite pellets with argon plasma
V.O. Shapovalov1, V.G. Mogylatenko1,2, M.V. Karpets1,2, R.V. Kozin1
1E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NASU.
11 Kazymyr Malevych Str., 03150, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”
37 Prosp. Beresteiskyi, 03056, Kyiv, Ukraine. E-mail: vmogilatenko@gmail.com
Abstract
Reducing CO2 emissions is of paramount importance, in order to address the issues of global warming. The negative contribution
of Ukrainian metallurgists to atmospheric pollution over the past 20 years amounted to about 1 bln t of carbon dioxide by
the year 2020. The solution can be found in the transition to the production of “green steel”, i.e. steel manufactured from direct
hydrogen-based reduction iron. Under the conditions of applying plasma heating, high temperatures lead to a rapid melting of
pellets, thermal decomposition of oxides occurs, and a reducing agent (hydrogen) is activated. Decomposition of oxides during
the heating and melting process accelerates the overall process of pellet reduction to wüstite. And only in that moment, the use
of hydrogen for reduction of iron and its deoxidation becomes justified. It was established that forming of a wüstite melt is
possible without the use of a reducing agent during plasma melting in an argon atmosphere.
Keywords: direct reduction, pellets, thermal decomposition, kinetics, magnetite melt, dilution with iron, wüstite
Received: 16.09.2024
Received in revised form: 21.10.2024
Accepted: 31.03.2025
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Suggested Citation
V.O. Shapovalov, V.G. Mogylatenko, M.V. Karpets, R.V. Kozin (2025) Producing a wüstite melt by thermal decomposition of hematite pellets with argon plasma.
The Paton Welding J., 02, 24-29.