Slag attack resistance of castable refractories for the short rotary furnace of secondary lead smelting application

This paper provides an evaluation of commercial castable refractories by the crucible corrosion test for possible use in secondary lead smelting short rotary furnace; one mullite-zirconia fused grain and two alumina-chrome based on white and brown fused alumina were compared to five commercial burned magnesia-chromite bricks. All products were supplied by refractory Brazilian manufacturers. After the corrosion tests, the slag penetration area of the samples was measured and the refractory-slag castables interface was analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Analysis (EDS) and X-Ray diffractometry. The performance of the castables; was-not higher than the standards burned magnesia-chromite, bricks normally used in this application. Nevertheless the good slag attack resistance of alumina-chrome castable based on white fused alumina shows the use castable refractory to be very promising.