Carbon and Sulfur in Fluorspar Using CS844

Fluorspar, a mineral composed of calcium fluoride (CaF2), is an important material in many industrial processes. It is used as a fluxing agent for steelmaking, a raw material for making aluminum fluoride and hydrofluoric acid, and in the production of enamels, glasses, and cement. As with any pure or graded processing material, the purity of the material must be tightly characterized in order to control the downstream effects of the impurities on the final product. Carbon is one of the impurities in fluorspar that must be determined, and can be in the form of carbonates or organic carbon. The LECO CS844, when equipped with the optional halogen trap, provides a fast and accurate means of determining the amount of total carbon in fluorspar, and can be set to automatically calculate the approximate carbon as CaCO3 in the sample.