calcination
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Calcination is thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound (e.g. mixed carbonate ores) whereby the compound is raised to high temperature without melting with a restricted supply of oxygen (i.e. gaseous O2 fraction of air), generally for the purpose of removing impurities or volatile substances and/or to induce thermal decomposition.
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Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Industrial processes
- Reactions
- Limestone calcination
- Oxidation
- Alchemy
- References
Calcination is thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound (e.g. mixed carbonate ores) whereby the compound is raised to high temperature without melting with a restricted supply of oxygen (i.e. gaseous O2 fraction of air), generally for the purpose of removing impurities or volatile substances and/or to induce thermal decomposition.
The root of the word calcination refers to its most prominent use, which is to remove carbon and oxygen from limestone (calcium carbonate) through applying heat to yield calcium oxide (quicklime). This calcination reaction (which is endothermic) is CaCO3(s) → CaO(s) + CO2(g).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “calcination” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.