REFRACTORY MATERIALS

Refractory materials must be chemically and physically stable at high temperatures. Depending on the operating environment, they must be resistant to thermal shock, be chemically inert, and/or have specific ranges of thermal conductivity and of the coefficient of thermal expansion.

The oxides of aluminium (alumina), silicon (silica) and magnesium (magnesia) are the most important materials used in the manufacturing of refractories. Another oxide usually found in refractories is the oxide of calcium (lime). Fire clays are also widely used in the manufacture of refractories.

Refractories must be chosen according to the conditions they face. Some applications require special refractory materials. Zirconia is used when the material must withstand extremely high temperatures. Silicon carbide and carbon (graphite) are two other refractory materials used in some very severe temperature conditions, but they cannot be used in contact with oxygen, as they would oxidize and burn.

Binary compounds such as tungsten carbide or boron nitride can be very refractory. Hafnium carbide is the most refractory binary compound known, with a melting point of 3890 °C. The ternary compound tantalum hafnium carbide has one of the highest melting points of all known compounds (4215 °C).

Molybdenum disilicide has a high melting point of 2030 °C and often used as a heating element.

Uses
Refractory materials are useful for the following functions:

• Serving as a thermal barrier between a hot medium and the wall of a containing vessel
• Withstanding physical stresses and preventing erosion of vessel walls due to the hot medium
• Protecting against corrosion
• Providing thermal insulation

Refractories have multiple useful applications. In the metallurgy industry, refractories are used for lining furnaces, kilns, reactors, and other vessels which hold and transport hot mediums such as metal and slag. Refractories have other high temperature applications such as fired heaters, hydrogen reformers, ammonia primary and secondary reformers, cracking furnaces, utility boilers, catalytic cracking units, air heaters, and sulfur furnaces.