Current Status and future development trend of China's carbon electrode industry Feng Zhanyi Abstract: Carbon electrodes are materials that can conduct electricity. It is made of electrically calcined anthracite, petroleum coke, graphite powder, coal tar pitch, and other main raw materials through batching, molding, roasting, mechanical processing, and other processes. After processing steps such as processing, carbon electrodes can be made. In the 21st century, as a new type of material vigorously promoted and actively used in our country, carbon electrodes have obvious advantages in energy saving and environmental protection. It is mainly used as a conductive electrode of a submerged arc furnace and is widely used in the smelting process of industrial silicon, ferroalloy, calcium carbide, yellow phosphorus, or non-metallic substances, and plays a pivotal role. Key: carbon electrodes; industry status; future development Before carbon electrodes entered millions of households, graphite electrodes, and electrode pastes were commonly used conductive materials for submerged arc furnaces. Compared with traditional graphite electrodes, carbon electrodes have the effect of reducing power consumption, and can further expand product specifications, thereby greatly reducing production costs. Compared with electrode paste, the conductivity of carbon electrodes is superior, which can effectively reduce the emission of dust and harmful gases during its smelting process, thereby reducing the risk of safety accidents. At this stage, 70% of my country's industrial silicon smelting industry has realized the use of carbon electrodes, including the production of titanium alloys and industries related to titanium alloys. At the same time, industries related to calcium carbide and yellow phosphorus are also gradually promoting the research and development, and experiments of carbon electrodes.  1. The advantages of carbon electrodes are based on different smelting varieties. Submerged arc furnaces for smelting can use graphite electrodes, carbon electrodes, or electrode pastes as conductive electrodes [1].

At this stage, the use of carbon electrodes in foreign industrial silicon and yellow phosphorus smelting has been fully promoted. However, the use of carbon electrodes in our country is limited to the production of industrial silicon surface-mounted submerged arc furnaces. The production of yellow phosphorus closed submerged arc furnaces still mainly relies on the use of graphite electrodes, while the production of ferroalloy submerged arc furnaces and calcium carbide submerged arc furnaces uses electrode paste most widely. The development and use of carbon electrodes in my country started relatively late, but the momentum of development is very rapid. Because carbon electrodes are used in the conduction of submerged arc furnaces, they have absolute advantages in reducing costs, saving energy and reducing emissions, and strengthening smelting. At the same time, the physical and chemical indicators of carbon electrodes also fully meet the requirements of downstream industries for product production. Therefore, carbon electrodes can be excellent substitutes for graphite electrodes and electrode pastes. At this stage, the use of carbon electrodes in the ferroalloy industry has made great progress and has been put into large-scale production. The use of calcium carbide and yellow phosphorus in the industry has gradually entered a new stage. The production of carbon electrodes needs to go through multiple steps such as crushing, batching, kneading, molding, roasting, and mechanical processing. The roasted semi-finished products are further divided in the machining workshop according to specific order specifications. This process produces 20% offcuts, which can be used as recycled material. Therefore, carbon electrodes also have certain circular economy capabilities.  2 The development of carbon electrodes in my country At the present stage, the use of carbon electrodes in my country is mainly concentrated in the field of industrial silicon smelting. The low voltage and high current transmitted from the furnace transformer are transmitted to the furnace by using carbon electrodes. Then, through the joint action of the arc at the end of the electrode, the charge, and the melt, the electric energy is converted into heat energy for high-temperature smelting.

The essence of the application of carbon electrodes in the submerged arc furnace smelting process is the process of continuous consumption of electrical conductors.  In the late 1990s, to reduce the huge energy consumption of industrial silicon smelting, improve smelting efficiency and quality, and meet the needs of high-power development of industrial silicon furnaces, the use of carbon electrodes and the development of related products were actively promoted.  , to achieve the use of carbon electrodes instead of graphite electrodes in industrial silicon smelting [2]. In recent years, domestic carbon electrode production enterprises have summarized and improved the basic economic laws of foreign carbon electrode technology and continuously studied their carbon electrode technology, which has greatly promoted the development of my country's carbon electrode production technology and promoted the development of my country's carbon electrode production technology. Continuous improving. product quality. Compared with graphite electrodes, carbon electrodes can be used more effectively on a larger scale, can effectively save production costs, reduce energy consumption, and have a positive effect on simplifying the production process, with excellent cost performance. Therefore, more efforts should be made to promote the development and application of carbon electrodes. At present, in my country's industrial smelting industry, the use of carbon electrodes has been actively promoted, and some products have even opened up overseas sales markets.  3 Future of Carbon Electrode Industry 3.1 Application of Carbon Electrode Downstream industries such as silicon, ferroalloy, calcium carbide, and yellow phosphorus smelting all have the characteristics of "two highs and one capital". Therefore, with the extremely high requirements for industrial production and environmental protection in the future, and the elimination of backward production capacity in related industries, it is necessary to improve and upgrade smelting technology and related process equipment, which makes carbon utilization electrodes have a very broad development in my country. prospect.

At present, the application of carbon electrodes in ferroalloy smelting has been successfully developed and has entered the stage of large-scale production. In contrast, the application of carbon electrodes in submerged arc furnace smelting of calcium carbide, yellow phosphorus, and titanium slag is still in the initial stage of research and development.  3.2 Market development prospects of carbon electrodes in industrial silicon production Before the 1990s, my country's industrial silicon production mainly relied on the use of graphite electrodes. Due to the limitation of graphite electrode diameter, the expansion of industrial silicon furnaces is seriously affected.  In 1999, relevant institutions at home and abroad conducted rigorous investigation and research on the specific use of graphite electrodes and developed and processed new carbon electrodes based on this. The research and development of carbon electrodes have effectively improved the problems of high ash content and poor strength of traditional electrodes. At this stage, there are Φ700 carbon electrodes independently developed by our country, which have been widely used in the production of industrial silicon furnaces. In recent years, the newly built industrial silicon furnaces with the above-mentioned capacity in my country all use carbon electrodes. Compared with graphite electrodes, carbon electrodes have the advantages of short production time and low cost. Its wide use realizes low-cost investment in industrial silicon production and promotes the construction and development of large-capacity industrial silicon furnaces in my country.  3.3 Carbon electrodes have been used in the field of ferroalloy production for a long time. Electrode paste is mainly used in the production of ferroalloy submerged arc furnaces, which will cause serious pollution during the production process. Because the ferroalloy smelting equipment is too backward, the design is unreasonable. At the same time, as a new energy-saving and environmentally friendly product, the development and use of carbon electrodes started relatively late. Therefore, the use of carbon electrodes in the ferroalloy industry is severely limited.  [3] use.

Although my country's ferroalloy industry has a large output, there are serious problems with the level of process equipment. According to relevant reports, in 2009, the total output of my country's ferroalloy industry reached 34 million tons, and there were more than 2,000 related production enterprises, but only a few enterprises with an average annual production capacity of more than 100,000 tons accounted for more than half of the total. More than 0.81% of the total ferroalloy submerged arc furnaces in the country are submerged arc furnaces for ferroalloy smelting, and the number is very small.  4 Conclusion Throughout the full text, the use of carbon electrodes has been a very broad development prospect in my country's industrial silicon industry. At the same time, the development of ferroalloy, calcium carbide, and yellow phosphorus industries will have stronger advantages and market space in the future. Therefore, relevant enterprises should increase the use and investment of carbon electrodes to promote the positive transformation of my country's industrial industry.  : [1] Defective tungsten oxide lithium battery or get rid of dependence on cobalt-nickel metal [J]. Nonferrous Metallurgy and Energy Conservation, 2019, 35(05): 63. [2] Liu Shijie, Cai Lanrong, Li Min, Chen Lijun. Electrode pair Effect of quasi-dry EDM surface strengthening on the structure and performance of TC4 strengthening layer [J]. Machine Tool and Hydraulics, 2019, 47(19): 32-35. [3] Li Jing. Action Mechanism of Rare Earth Elements in Multiple Rare Earth Tungsten Electrodes[J]. Metallurgy and Materials, 2019, 39(05): 104+106.-End of full text-