A Brief History Of Ferrochrome

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

From 1906 to 1940, F.M. Becket and his collaborators carried out the process of producing low-carbon ferrochromium from silicon-reduced chromium ore. Test and production in 500kW single-phase two-electrode electric furnace (furnace output 400kg) to 12000kW three-phase electric furnace (furnace output 10t) to meet the needs of stainless steel production. Around 1920, the Trollhetan Ferroalloy Plant in Sweden developed a three-step process to produce low-carbon ferrochrome. That is, the electric silicon heat method, also known as the 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 Pollen method, also known as the heat exchange method. After continuous improvement, this method has become the main method for producing low carbon ferrochromium. In 1949, Erasmus (H.Erasmus) obtained a patent for the production of low carbon ferrochromium with C 0.01% by vacuum solid state decarburization method. Produced under the name Sim-plex Ferrochrome at Union Carbide's Ma-rietta plant