CHALLENGES FACING THE REFRACTORY INDUSTRY IN RELATION TO METALLURGICAL PROCESSES

Refractory materials have been around since the inception of human civilization. They have played a significant role in the development of pyrometallurgical processes. Therefore, it is important to be acquainted with the challenges and opportunities presented by the industry. The industry faces several challenges; mainly supply chain issues, which include freight costs and raw material availability, rising costs of virgin raw materials and changes in quality, changing process conditions, and environmental and sustainability issues. All these contribute to a circular economy or lack thereof. One of the preferred remedies in the industry is circular economy. This is because of its multi-faceted benefits namely, reduce, reuse and recycle, called 3Rs philosophy. Huge strides have been achieved in the recycling of refractories, also referred to as grog-based products in monolithics or unshaped refractories. However, limited research is available on the use of grog in shaped or brick-type refractories. The use of grog has been well entrenched and integral in reducing the cost of monolithics with controlled quantities for non-critical applications. However, the interaction between virgin-grog bricks and different types of slags is yet to be understood as these bricks may appear to have unchanged elemental chemical composition, and they may have mineralogical changes with non-uniform phases. This is a challenge because of weak links that may be created for corrosion propagation. This paper discusses the challenges faced by the industry in relation to possible deviations resulting from the use of grog in shaped refractories.