A Sustainable Process to Produce Manganese and Its Alloys through Hydrogen and Aluminothermic Reduction

Abstract

Hydrogen and aluminum were used to produce manganese, aluminum–manganese (AlMn) and ferromanganese (FeMn) alloys through experimental work, and mass and energy balances. Oxide pellets were made from Mn oxide and CaO powder, followed by pre-reduction by hydrogen. The reduced MnO pellets were then smelted and reduced at elevated temperatures through CaO flux and Al reductant addition, yielding metallic Mn. Changing the amount of the added Al for the aluminothermic reduction, with or without iron addition led to the production of Mn metal, AlMn alloy and FeMn alloy. Mass and energy balances were carried out for three scenarios to produce these metal products with feasible material flows. An integrated process with three main steps is introduced; a pre-reduction unit to pre-reduce Mn ore, a smelting-aluminothermic reduction unit to produce metals from the pre-reduced ore, and a gas treatment unit to do heat recovery and hydrogen looping from the pre-reduction process gas. It is shown that the process is sustainable regarding the valorization of industrial waste and the energy consumptions for Mn and its alloys production via this process are lower than current commercial processes. Ferromanganese production by this process will prevent the emission of about 1.5 t CO2/t metal.

Hydrated aluminum powder for direct alloying of steel and alloys - challenges of the future

“…Presently, the problem of hydrogen reduction of metaloxide materials can be successfully solved by its sequential combination with the aluminothermic reduction process. A successful example of such a solution is the study [23] and its proposed process-HalMan. The results obtained on the example of hydrogen-alumothermal reduction of manganese oxides to produce alumo-manganese and ferromanganese alloys are the most encouraging and ecologically effective, but its direct use in the processes of direct alloying of steel and alloys is also impossible due to the need for a special hydrogen reaction chamber.…”

Isothermal Pre-Reduction Behavior of Nchwaning Manganese Ore in H2 Atmosphere

“…The present work is based on the idea of using H 2 to reduce Mn oxides to MnO in a prereduction step in which the chemical reactions (1) to (3) occur. Then, the aluminothermic reduction of the pre-reduced ore (or MnO-containing material) is conducted to produce Mn metal, aluminum-manganese alloys (AlMn) and ferromanganese alloys through the reaction (4) [16].…”

Control of Silica Gel Formation in the Acidic Leaching of Calcium Aluminate Slags with Aqueous HCl for Al Extraction

“…For instance, H. Güney et al studied the aluminothermic reduction of chromite concentrates for the production of FeCr [2], C. Stinn et al the aluminothermic reduction of manganese sulfide to produce Mn master alloy, and J. Safarian and A. Kudyba et al the aluminothermic reduction of MnO slags in process that could be tailored to produce Mn, AlMn, and FeMn [3,4].…”

“…produce Mn master alloy, and J. Safarian and A. Kudyba et al the aluminothermic reduction of MnO slags in process that could be tailored to produce Mn, AlMn, and FeMn [3,4].…”