The Kinetics of Gas-Liquid Metal Reactions Involving Levitated Drops. Carburization and Decarburization of Molten Iron in CO-CO₂ Gas Mixtures at High Pressures

The kinetics of decarburization and carburization of levitated molten iron-carbon alloy drops at 1650° in CO-CO2 gas mixtures were studied at a pressure of 40 atm. The results showed that, under the experimental conditions used, the rates were controlled by transport in the gas phase (decarburization) or by mixed transport control (carburization). The levitated drops behaved as static spherical particles as far as transport in the liquid phase was concerned since the effective diffusivity of carbon in the liquid was close to the atomic diffusivity. The transport model developed in the paper was applied to explain the data from some earlier investigations