Development Trend of Refractories for Baosteel

1. Vigorously Develop Energy-saving Refractories Refractory Ceramic Fiberboard

During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, China's GDP per unit energy consumption decreased by 14.38%, but it is still much higher than that of developed countries. China's economic development has encountered the test of energy bottleneck. The government has formulated policies to save energy and eliminate high energy consumption industries to guide the future development of China's economy.

The production of refractory raw materials and refractory products (especially shaped refractory products) belongs to the production of high energy consumption. Energy supply and energy price affect the production of refractory materials. Refractories themselves also affect the energy saving and longevity of downstream equipment. Compared with energy saving in refractory production process, refractories contribute more to the energy saving and longevity of downstream equipment. For example, reducing the carbon content of carbon-containing refractories can reduce the thermal conductivity of refractories and the heat loss of high temperature vessels; developing lightweight and low thermal conductivity working lining refractories is an effective way to reduce the heat dissipation of refractories and thermal storage of refractories, and can greatly reduce the heat loss and CO2 emissions.

2. Vigorously Developing Environment-friendly Refractories

The rapid development of economy should not sacrifice the environment, so the development of environmentally friendly refractories is urgent. Some non-toxic and harmless binders and raw materials should be selected to make refractories. Hexavalent chromium ions can pollute water sources, so magnesia-chromium bricks are gradually being replaced by magnesia-alumina spinel bricks and iron-alumina spinel bricks and applied to steel and cement industries, such as RH impregnating pipes are gradually replacing the former magnesia-chromium bricks with chromium-free magnesia-alumina spinel integral castables. However, it is difficult to replace chromium-containing refractories with other materials in some industries, so it is necessary to pay attention to the development of chromium-containing materials to avoid the formation and leakage of hexavalent chromium in use and after storage. In addition, anhydrous chromium-free mud for blast furnaces and carbon-free repairing materials for converters are gradually replacing previously less environmentally friendly products.

3. New Refractories Management Model

In order to reduce the consumption of refractories, it is not only necessary for refractory enterprises to improve their product quality, but also for refractory users to improve their use level. Learning the management mode of refractories in Japan and Korea Iron and Steel Company and setting up specialized refractory service company are one of the effective measures that can be taken.

4. Vigorously Developing Recycling Technology of Refractories

The resource recycling of refractories includes the recycling of used refractories and the recycling of low-grade raw ores. China produces up to 4 million tons of used refractories every year, most of which are used as garbage, which not only wastes resources, but also pollutes the environment. At present, all countries in the world have carried out research on the reuse of refractories after use. The recovery rate of refractories in some foreign steel plants has reached 80%, while that in China is only about 30%, and the main purpose is to recycle magnesia-carbon bricks after use. This requires our country to intensify the work in this regard.

Because of the lack of unified planning for mine development in the past, the phenomenon of mining rich and abandoning poor is serious, which not only causes a lot of waste of resources, but also seriously damages the mining environment. The Institute of High Temperature Materials of Zhengzhou University has done some work in the development of low-grade ores. By cooperating with enterprises and using medium and low-grade bauxite as the main raw material, bauxite-based homogeneous materials, fused zirconia corundum mullite, fused spinel and salon have been developed, and some achievements have been achieved. As raw materials, they have been used in the preparation of refractory products, and good results have been achieved. It has a good application prospect.

5. Vigorously Develop High Efficiency and Long Life Refractories

In order to reduce the consumption of refractories in iron and steel smelting, as far as refractories are concerned, long life and low cost refractories are developed without changing the production and operation conditions of iron and steel. In order to develop long-life and low-cost refractories, it is necessary to analyze the damage mechanism of refractories in material design and strengthen the design of manufacturing process. For the analysis of the damage mechanism of refractories, refractory manufacturers and iron and steel enterprises should cooperate closely. In addition, in order to reduce the consumption of refractories, it is necessary to improve the durability of repairing materials and improve the repairing technology.

With the increasing demand for high-purity steel and high-purity steel, it is necessary to vigorously develop long-life functional refractories which can improve the cleanliness of molten steel and the quality of billet, such as large flow rate, long-life air permeable bricks, immersed nozzles adhering to anti-oxidant aluminium, etc.