| abstract |
A two stage reaction for the production of steel from iron carbide is carried out in two separate but interrelated reactors (1, 36). In the first reactor (1), iron carbide, with slag formers, is fed into a feed end (2) and the reaction is well-mixed by the vessel geometry, the stirring action of below-surface injection of oxygen and iron carbide feed, and the evolution of gases from the liquid metal bath (9). The product, containing about 0.5-2 % carbon, is fed into the second reactor (36) where it is refined with subsurface-injected oxygen. The second reaction is autogenous, and the evolved carbon monoxide is fed to the first reactor (1) where it is burned with oxygen in a foamy slag, which, with post-combustion burning in the slag of CO evolved in the first reactor (1), and with iron carbide preheating with the sensible heat of the off-gas from the first reaction, makes that reaction also essentially autogenous. |