Characterization of steel billet scales generated during the continuous casting process in SIDERPERU steel plant

Abstract

Tons of waste is produced during iron steel’s industrial production, creating environmental pollution. This work aims to characterize the steel scale formed on the billet surface during the last step of steel production in the SIDERPERU steel plant. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) shows stacked layers one above the other on steel billets scales surface. Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) reveal the high content of Fe and O, with Ca, Si, Mn, and Cr as minority elemental compounds. X-ray Difraction (XRD) shows FeO, α-Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 as crystallographic phases. Magnetometry reveals Verwey transition and paramagnetic signals that screen the Morin transition. Mössbauer Spectroscopy at room temperature displays magnetic and non-magnetic parts. The nonmagnetic part has the hyperfne parameters corresponding to predominant nonstoichiometric wustite. Octahedral (Fe+2/Fe3+) and tetrahedral Fe+3 hyperfne felds of 46.0 and 49.4 T values respectively are associated to nonstoichiometric magnetite and another sextet with a hyperfne feld of 52.0 T is related to hematite.