Iron carbide process
AssigneeIron Carbide Holdings, Ltd.
InventorsJames E. Stevens, Arden W. Swanson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for producing iron carbide in a fluid bed reactor in which the pressure may be maintained in excess of the pressure at which the mole fraction of hydrogen in the process gas begins to decrease. The hydrogen concentration is increased above the equilibrium concentration for hydrogen at the temperature and pressure in the reactor. Further improvements are gained by preheating a iron ore reactor feed in which the iron oxide is primarily in the form of hematite under a reducing atmosphere, and using at least two fluid bed reactors in series.
Claims9
In a process of producing iron carbide in a fluid bed reactor comprising introducing an iron containing reactor feed into a fluid bed reactor, contacting said feed in said reactor with a reactant gas comprising a reducing gas and a carburizing gas to convert at least a portion of said feed to iron carbide, the improvement comprising reacting said iron containing reactor feed in at least two separate fluid bed reactors, each of said reactors having respective reactant gas compositions, temperatures and pressures and wherein at least one process parameter selected from temperature, and reactant gas composition is controlled in each reactor independently of each other reactor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.