ABSTRACT
The wide variety of high-temperature processing across various industries demands diversity in the refractory materials. The diversity requirements may arise from application temperatures, atmospheric conditions that prevail during the processing, mechanical, thermal, chemical, abrading and wear conditions, and soon. Refractories are very commonly classified based on their chemical behavior, that is, how a refractory will behave in a particular environment. Acidic refractories are those that are resistant to any acidic conditions like slag, fume, and gases at high temperatures. Neutral refractories are chemically stable to both acids and bases and are used in areas where slag and atmosphere are either acidic or basic. Basic refractories are those materials that are attacked by acidic components but stable against alkaline slags, dust, fumes, and environments at elevated temperatures. Since these refractories do not react with alkaline slags, they are of considerable importance in basic steel-making processes, non-ferrous metallurgical operations, and cement industries.
