1. I won't be able to provide information on recarburisers for carbon steel manufacturing as this is a commodity product for most grades with the exception of a couple you mentioned including DeSulco®
2. As for refractories, there are many manufacturers of refractory bricks and parts, each with IP formulations and various percentages of graphite used, so it is difficult to estimate the number of refractory bricks in a specific furnace as there are many furnace manufacturers with various furnace designs, yields, and capacities.
3. The price I have on file for DeSulco® is quite old at US$ 2,100 MT CIF. This is a proprietary product for Superior, and they do not publish prices and any intelligence is obtained from direct customer communications.
4. There are a limited number of suppliers of quality expanded graphite that meet lead acid requirements. There are few expander manufacturers that have tested expanded graphite, but have yet to fully commericalised due to specifications required of the expandable graphite (i.e. PSD, purity, BET, etc.). Many expander manufacturers have tested both primary synthetic graphite powders, high purity micronised flake graphite, and high structured carbon black powders.
Expander past for lead acid batteries consists of lead (Pb) and lead dioxide (PbO2) mixed with carbon black powder, barium sulphate (BaSO4) and lignosulphonates (polyelectrolytes). The challenge has been the build up of lead sulfate on the expander and carbon particles with the focus to reduce the build up as the lead sulfate reduces the life of a battery cell.
Both primary synthetic flake and high purity micronised natural flake graphite powders have shown the most promise.
I'll revert with the balance of your queries when I have more time in the next couple of days.
