New Approach for the Application of Functional Ceramic Material in Carbon Bonded Doloma Refractories to Reduce Emissions

Doloma carbon bricks with graphite contents of approximately 2 wt% are widely used in the production of stainless steels in argon oxygen decarburisation (AOD) or in vacuum oxygen decarburisation (VOD) vessels as lining material. The application of doloma refractories is connected with metallurgical benefits such as high oxidic stability of its oxides, and the ability to bond sulphur from the hot metal. The production and application of carbon bonded refractories is linked with environmental harmful emissions in the broadest sense. Amongst the aspect of environmental friendly refractory systems this work has observed and shown the interaction of functional ceramic material TiO₂ with the organic binder system. In the centre of this work is the aspect of increased residual carbon content of the binder resin due to TiO₂ addition. The increased residual carbon content of the binder resin connected with improved mechanical, physical and thermomechanical properties due to sub‐micro scaled TiO₂ addition offers the feasibility to reduce the total carbon content without downgrading the brick properties. This aspect has not been observed yet and is of high interest with respect to reduced emissions and environmental friendly refractories. Previous works have investigated the influence of TiO₂ on other carbon bonded refractory systems such as alumina carbon and magnesia carbon. As illustrated in this work and previous work, TiO₂ is working completely different in the Doloma Carbon system from other systems.