FACT – Facility for the Analysis of Chemical Thermodynamics

FACT – Facility for the Analysis of Chemical Thermodynamics – started in 1976 as a joint research project between two universities, the École Polytechnique (Professors Christopher W. Bale & Arthur D. Pelton) and McGill University (Professor William T. Thompson), for treating thermodynamic properties and calculations in chemical metallurgy. This back ground has also predetermined the contents of the FACT database.

This database comprises two parts which contain on the one hand stoichiometric pure substances (approximately 4300 entries) and one the other hand a multitude of condensed non-ideal solution phases. For very many oxides and salts the solutions together with the pure substances form sets of interconsistent phases which permit the calculation of complete phase diagrams. There are however also cases for which the solution phases are based on a particular solvent, e.g. liquid Fe, Cu or Pb. The range of applicability of these phases is limited both with respect to temperature and composition. They form nevertheless an extremely useful basis for the investigation of pyro-metallurgical processes.

The FACT database ( together with the FactSage program) is employed in many diverse fields of chemical thermodynamics by pyrometallurgists, hydrometallurgists, chemical engineers, corrosion engineers, inorganic chemists, geochemists, ceramists, electrochemists, environmentalists, etc. and it is installed in hundreds of universities, government laboratories and industrial research centers around the world.