Abstract
The ferromanganese industry is currently strained by the cost of production
that is continuously increasing. Alternatives of reductants are being sought to try and
alleviate the production costs namely solar energy, wind and biomass. Some studies on
the possible use of biomass using the South African manganese ores were conducted
and as preliminary results were generated. The South African manganese industry has
focused more on the pre-reduction. The current paper focuses on the use of raw
macadamia nut shells for the reduction of manganese ore in the presence of carbon
monoxide. The feed and products were characterized using XRD, XRF as well as SEM
and compared to products currently obtained using conventional reductants. The
basicity of the feed was kept at around 1. The temperature was set at 1450oC, a graphite
crucible placed in a silica crucible to prevent any spillages. Comparisons between
products obtained when raw macadamia nut shells and conventional reductants were
used was done. It was found that macadamia nut shells have great potentials of replacing
the conventional reductants used so far. The separation of slag from the metal needs
imporvement as the slag structure was more needle-like and some metal entrapments
were noticeable as compared to conventional process.