KINETICS OF CARBOTHERMIC REDUCTION OF AN IRANIAN CELESTITE ORE

Two commercial methods are used for the production of strontium carbonate:1) Direct conversion of Celsetite to strontium carbonate by hot sodium carbonate,2) Carbothermic reduction of celestite with coal followed by water leaching of strontium sulfide(SrS) and its conversion to strontium carbonate.The present study has been made on the carbothermic reduction of celestite ores of Varamin (Iran) mines. Effects of temperature, time, pellet size, particle size of celestite ore, pellet compactness and type of reducing agent have been studied. In the range of 800-1100°C, reduction rate increases notably with temperature, which may mean that the reduction is predominantly chemical controlled. Activation energy of around 22.5 kcal/mol supports the idea of chemical control mechanism. Further support for this postulation is provided by the following facts:1) Increasing rate with carbon reactivity (graphite, coal, and charcoal)2) Small dependency of rate on pellet compactness.3) Small dependency of rate on pellet size