Fabrication of iron carbide by methanol/ethanol and hydrogen during iron ore reduction

Considering the industrial production of Fe₃C by applying CH₄-H₂ and CO-H₂ gas as reducing agents, Fe₃C was attempted to produce by adopting hydrogen and methanol gas, the latter produced by the vaporization of anhydrous methanol. The effects of temperature, hydrogen reaction time and methanol content on iron carbide rate are investigated. Phase composition of the products is studied by SEM and XRD. The results indicate that the experiment attains the goal of high efficient production when the temperature is 700 ℃, the volume of anhydrous methanol is more than 60 mL, hydrogen reduction time is 120 min. The method has a good application prospect due to its simple process, mild operation condition. On this basis, the reduction performance was studied by replacing ethanol with methanol.