www.ijcrt.org © 2021 IJCRT | Volume 9, Issue 1 January 2021 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT2101440 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 3592 Development of an alternative ladle covering compound from flyash for blast furnace ladles Sivalingaraju Barisetty, Prashanth B, D Desai, Irfan GS, Rameshwar Sah, Srinivas Rao A, LR Singh JSW Steel Ltd,Vijayanagar Works, Bellary District-583275, India Abstract Rice husk ash (RHA) based ladle covering compound (LCC) is commonly used in steel industry to reduce the temperature loss while transferring hot metal from iron making units to steel making units. In the present work, an alternate low cost ladle covering compound has been developed and tried at plant scale to reduce the cost and effective use of process waste. The new compound consists of fly ash containing 6-12% carbon to meet the properties required for ladle covering compound. Physical, chemical and thermal properties of both the RHA and flyash based LCC were studied. Operational parameters such as spreadability, melting, track-time temperature loss, ease of ladle cleaning, elemental pick up by liquid metal, specific consumption etc. were monitored during trials. While the physical, chemical and thermal performance of the new compound was at par with RHA based compound, the specific consumption has reduced by 10% resulting in reduced dust level during usage and cleaning. Flyash contains less alkali as compared to RHA based LCC which is advantageous to ladle refractory life. Keywords: LCC, Flyash, Spreadability, Melting. 1. Introduction Use of ladle covering compound is a common practice in steel industry to avoid/minimize the heat loss during molten metal transfer. Iron making units of COREX and Blast furnace at JSW Steel Vijayanagar units are currently using rice husk ash (RHA) based ladle covering compound in hot metal ladles. LCC spreads and flows freely on the surface of liquid metal by creating a thick layer of 1-2 inches and controls the heat loss during transfer of hot metal. Flyash contains 45-50% SiO2, 25-30% Al2O3, 5-10% CaO and 6-12% unburnt carbon. RHA contains major portion (85-90%) of amorphous silica and rest are other oxides such as MgO, CaO, Na2O, K2O. It acts as good thermal insulator with melting temperature of more than 1350 o C [1]. Most of the literature describes the applications of flyash and RHA as filler material for concrete, Ceramic Glaze production, bricks making, geo polymer concrete making and water filter media [2-4]. At JSW Steel, currently RHA mixed with aluminum dross based LCC is being used. It is found that flyash is having similar characteristics of RHA with respect to size, chemistry and thermal properties. The major requirements of an LCC are spreadability and low specific gravity for floating on the metal surface and not to form crust by