Comparative analysis of refractory wear in the copper-making process by a novel (industrial) dynamic test

Abstract A great cost driver in the copper-making industry is the periodical replacement of the refractory because of wear, which is a consequence of the combination of chemical attack by molten phases and the mechanical and thermal stresses due to the characteristics of the operation. This paper presents a post-mortem study of magnesia-chromite and alumina-chromite refractories using an innovative dynamic test carried out in a launder of a slag-cleaning furnace at the Atlantic Copper Smelter (Huelva; Spain). The chemical interaction between the refractory and the slag was evaluated. The different reaction layers formed from the chemical interaction were analyzed using an Electron Probe Micro-Analyzer with a wavelength-dispersive spectrometer (EPMA-WDS) at the University of Huelva. The reaction layers contained new products as result of complex chemical interactions between the slag and the different constituents of the refractory material. In order to propose a model to represent this complex process, thermochemical calculations were carried out to define a baseline to explain the microstructures obtained after the wear process, which represent the chemical interactions between the slag and the refractory. The model finally proposed allowed us to compare the three different refractory qualities used in this work. The results match the analytical data from the dynamic attack.