Heat-transfer model for the Acheson process

The Acheson process is used to manufacture silicon carbide (SiC) in a resis tor furnace using petroleum coke and silica as raw materials. The process i s highly inefficient, as only 10 to 15 pet of the charge gets converted int o silicon carbide. No published attempt has been made to optimize this cent ury-old process by applying mathematical modeling. Therefore, a simultaneou s heat- and mass-transfer model has been developed for the resistance-heati ng furnace, considering silicon carbide formation as a typical carbothermal reaction. Coupled transient partial differential equations have been worke d out. These equations have been solved numerically, using the implicit fin ite-difference method in their nondimensional form, to obtain the profiles of solid temperature and volume fraction reacted in the furnace. The trend of the computed results appears to be realistic; comparison of the results with published experimental work validates the applicability of the model's predictions. The effects of various parameters on the process have been st udied. These include void fraction, power inputs, initial concentration of silicon carbide present in the charge, etc.