Abstract:The vacuum aluminothermic reduction of the mixture of calcined magnesite and calcined dolomite was studied. An isothermal reduction method satisfying the vacuum aluminothermic reduction was proposed. The experiments were carried out at 4 Pa. The results indicate that the reduction rate is increased with increasing temperature, content of aluminum and pellet forming pressure. The XRD patterns of pellets at different reduction stages confirm that the reduction process can be roughly classified into three stages: the formation of MgAl₂O₄, and Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃ phases; the phase transformation from MgAl₂O₄ and C₁₂A₇ to CaAl₂O₄; the formation of CaAl₄O₇ phase. The experimental data were divided into three parts according to the kinetic models. The apparent activation energies of the three parts were determined to be 98.2, 133.0 and 223.3 kJ/mol, respectively.

Key words: magnesium; kinetics; aluminothermic reduction; magnesite; dolomite