Kinetic Study of Barite Carbothermic Reduction in Presence of Sodium Carbonate as Catalyst
Volume 7, Issue 2, Spring 2010, Pages 58-67
A. Salem, Y. Tavakkoli Osgouei, S. Jamshidi
Abstract The catalytic reduction of barite in the presence of sodium carbonate has been investigated to evaluate the effect of catalyst amount on reaction mechanism. Different amounts of sodium carbonate ranging from 2.5-10.0 wt.% were doped on coke and the test samples containing stoichiometric mixes of barite and coke powders were isothermally heated in air atmosphere. The catalytic effect of sodium carbonate was studied by isothermal experiments performed at different temperatures and reduction times. The conversion–time data were analyzed by using a modified kinetic model and the influence of catalyst content on kinetic parameters was evaluated. The results show that the addition of 7.5 wt.% sodium carbonate significantly decreases activation energy. Finally, the article concludes that catalyst amount has a negligible role on gasification of coke if the reduction process is carried out at high temperature close to 1100°C. The obtained results can be useful in industrial practice.