Behavior of vanadium during reduction and smelting of vanadium titanomagnetite metallized pellets

Abstract The effects of CaO content, MgO content and smelting temperature on the vanadium behavior during the smelting of vanadium titanomagnetite metallized pellets were investigated. The thermodynamics of reduction and distribution of vanadium was analyzed and the high-temperature smelting experiments were carried out. The thermodynamic calculations show that the distribution ratio of vanadium between the slag and the hot metal decreases with the increments of CaO and MgO content in the slag as well as the increase of the smelting temperature. The smelting experiments demonstrate that the vanadium content in iron and the recovery rate of vanadium in pig iron increase as the CaO content, MgO content and smelting temperature increase, whereas the vanadium distribution ratio between the slag and iron tends to decrease. Moreover, the recovery rate of vanadium in pig iron has a rising trend with increasing the optical basicity of the slag. The addition of MgO in the slag to increase the slag optical basicity can not only improve the vanadium reduction but also promote the formation of magnesium-containing anosovite, which is beneficial to following titanium extraction.