THERMODYNAMIC SUBSTANTIATION OF PRODUCING SILICON-CONTAINING FERROALLOYS FROM PERLITE

Perlite, which is quite widely used in various industries (construction, oil, chemical, food, agriculture and several other industries) due to the content of amorphous silica, which has increased reactivity, can become a reserve raw material for producing silicon-containing ferroalloys. The article presents the results of studies on the possibility of producing ferrosilicon and ferrosilicoaluminium from perlite in the presence of iron and carbon. The studies were carried out by thermodynamic modelling using the HSC-6.0 software package, as well as by methods of rotatable planning and geometric optimization. The conditions (temperature, amount of iron) have been determined that allow the extraction of 75 - 80 % of silicon into FeSi45 grade ferrosilicon (41.3 - 42.2 % of Si) and into FSA5510 gradeferrosilicoaluminium, containing 51.8 - 52.2 % of Si and 7.5 - 8.8 % of Al.