Cladding and corrosion characteristics of magnesium-aluminum spinel refractory by alkaline slag during alkali recovery

The alkaline slag produced during alkali recovery might cause harm to the furnace's refractory components. The seat-drop technique and static dry pan method are used to explore the cladding features and corrosion characteristics of alkaline slag on the surface of magnesia-alumina spinel refractory in this paper. SEM-EDS and XRD are used to study the microstructure, fundamental changes, and compound composition of the molten cladding and interfacial layers, as well as the trends of slag column alterations. Factsage 7.2 software is used to model the interaction between the molten slag and the refractory. The results demonstrate that the wettability process of the slag column is impeded in a reducing environment. Combine with the results of the thermodynamic simulate, it is found that the formation and transformation of a large number of high melting point compounds in a reducing atmosphere is the decisive reason for the inhibition of wettability. Temperature increases promote the production of high melting points substances such as magnesium silicate and sodium metal aluminate, which alters the micro-morphology of the materials and improves slag resistance and permeability resistance of refractories.