This paper presents results of an investigation aimed at utilizing industrial wastes of a Steel and Coal Processing industries in Nigeria to synthesize an insulating powder used in conserving heat in the refractory-lined ladle during steel making. Insulating powder is used to minimize heat losses in liquid steel – containing vessels like Ladles and Tundishes. They are mixtures of one or more refractory components, mixed with fast-burning materials. The results of the thermal conductivity tests showed that the newly formulated powders had comparable thermal insulating properties with the imported ones but also suggested, by the clearly lower thermal conductivity values, that the locally- made materials might in fact be superior than the imported ones. It is also worthy of note that the K-value of the coal – ash – based powder (0.12) was lower than that of the coal – reject – based on (0.135), thus the coal reject and coal ash based powders approximately corresponded in composition to imported samples I and II respectively ( and also to compound types I and II respectively). This suggested that coal – ash should be used for the formulation of type I compounds and coal reject for type II compounds. Preliminary results from chemical analyses and thermal conductivity tests compared favourably with data for imported insulating compounds. Thus a substitute for the usual proprietary and very costly insulating powder for use in steel and allied industries had been developed with the attendant huge savings in foreign exchange.
