Feasibility of an Iron and Steelmaking Process Combining Blast Furnace with Converter

⎯ MUSE-K Process

Kusuhiro Mukai
Department of Materials, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
(Former, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan)
Prince Consort Road London SW7 2BP, London, UK
Tel.: +44-20-7594-6810
Fax.: +44-20-7584-3194
E-mail: hiro_mukai@nifty.com
Seshadri Seetharaman
Department of Material Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Brinellvägen 23, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel.: +46-8-790-8355
Fax.: +46-8-790-0939
E-mail: raman@kth.se
Kenneth C. Mills
Department of Materials, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Prince Consort Road London SW7 2BP, London, UK
Tel.: +44-20-7594-6759
Fax.: +44-20-7594-6758
E-mail: k.mills@imperial.ac.uk
Taishi Matsushita
Department of Material Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Brinellvägen 23, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel.: +46-8-790-9021
Fax.: +46-8-790-0939
E-mail: taishi@mse.kth.se

Key words: New iron and steelmaking process, Blast furnace, Basic oxygen furnace

Background

New ironmaking processes have been extensively explored with a view to reducing environmental pollution by green house gases (CO2)

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generation, saving energy and resources, as well as reduction of slag volume. In addition to these demands, 1)Lowering the cost of steel
production, 2) Reduction of yard area and 3) Continuous process etc. are also required from the viewpoint of economical use of
resources. If the conventional unit process can be simplified or if the number of unit processes can be minimized suitable integration of
elementary processes, these requirements are likely to be satisfied. In order to realize the aim, some ideas for a new process are discussed
in this paper.
So far, the dominating ironmaking process is the Blast Furnace (BF) process. In recent years, a number of new process were developed
as for example, COREX method[1], DIOS method[2, 3], AISI method[4], HIsmelt method[5].
However, the iron and steelmaking along the conventional approach, as well as by means of the new ironmaking processes are carried
out in two steps, viz,production of iron by BF or Smelting Reduction Process and steelmaking and secondary steel making in the
steelmaking step. To the knowledge of the present authors, the concrete idea of a combined iron- and steelmaking process has been never
proposed. The present authors propose an idea of a integrated iron and steelmaking process and investigate the feasibility of the new
process to satisfy these demands in this paper. This new process takes advantage of combined blast furnace as well as BOF practices to
produce steel in a single step. The process is expected to have strong energy and environmental impacts.

OUTLINE OF THE IDEA

In this section the outline of the new process will be described. The outline of the new process is as follows. The main idea of this new
process is to suitably combine blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) operation by the bottom-blown oxygen process (Q-BOP
method).

The pig iron produced in BF is decarburized by OBF which is positioned at the bottom of BF instead of the hearth. The furnace consists
of BF and OBF and hence, we would name the furnace as "Blast oxygen bottom furnace (BOBF)" on the furnace. A schematic
illustration of the furnace of the new process is shown in Fig. 1
As shown in Fig. 1, decarburization reaction is preferentially performed in the center portion of bottom part of BF, that is, inside the
cylindrical refractory wall mounted in the center portion of installed OBF bottom. And produced liquid steel, poured from holes of the
OBF is finally refined and adjusted the chemical composition by conventional primary and secondary refining processes such as RH,
DH, etc.

Controlling the slag composition in the OBF is important to achieve high quality and high performance refining. The slag composition in
OBF is controlled by the injection of CaCO3 powder, for example, from lance of OBF and tuyere of BF into the center area of the OBF.

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 Coke

BF: Ore
The design of BF
shoud be flexible and
depends on the
behavior of OBF

Tuyere

Slag
Slag
OBF

Pig iron
Conventional hearth
refractory (Carbon,
Chamotte)

Cylindrical refractory O 2 +N2

MgO - C refractory
wall CaCO3

Liquid steel
Sliding nozzle

Blast oxygen bottom blowing furnace (BOBF)

Figure 1 A schematic illustration of BOBF.

Advantages of the process expected and its weak points

Advantages of MUSE-K process

Great interest about global warming due to the emission of green house gases including CO2 gases is evinced in the field of ecology
recently. And the CO2 emission from steelworks are one of the most important factor. The proposed process principally enables to save
generation of CO2 gases.

The ironmaking and steelmaking are done in single step therefore the total slag volume is decreased. And the costs of production should
be decreased because the working time should be cut by the continuous process and converter and its yard can be avoided.

In addition, the thermal energy will be saved. The oxygen gas is injected in the OBF for decarburisation and the following reaction is

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expected to occur.

C + 1/2 O2(g)=CO(g)+Q

The CO gas should be saved approximately 10% compared with conventional steelmaking process. And the thermal energy Q
accompanied by this reaction is also saved. This thermal energy will be utilized as a heat source.

We can make full use of the knowledge for conventional process for developing MUSE-K process because this process is a combination
of blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) as shown in Fig. 1. On the other hand, we need an understanding of a new steelmaking
process such as smelting reduction process.

Weak points
From the design of this process, some weak points are also detected. A weak point of this process is that it is impossible to do hot metal
processing (hot metal pretreatment). Steels with very low levels of impurities are required nowadays. To attaine such high purity steel,
the hot metal processing is conventionally introduced before the hot metal is transferred to converter. However, as shown in Fig. 1, the
OBF corresponding to converter (Q-BOP) in conventional process is positioned under the BF. Therefore, the hot metal processing must
be eliminated.

And the refining and degassing should be done at OBF stage and/or secondary refining. The secondary refining has to be optimized and
enhanced for producing high purity steel by this process. Otherwise, we must limit the process to make steel without hot metal
processing. However these weak points can be overcome by the knowledge and experiences of hot metal processing, process by the BOF
and conventional secondary refining.

Second weak point may be the difficulty in operating the process with large-scale BF. Nowadays the large-scale BF for ironmaking is
approx. 4000m3. It is expected that refining large amount of iron from such a large-scale BF by OBF is not so easy because the rate of
refining by OBF part should be balanced with the rate of ironmaking by BF part.

From the viewpoint of technological problem, it may be more difficult to get rid of slag from OBF whereas conventional BF slag is easy
to get rid of. To get rid of slag easily, the composition of slag and the design of OBF should be discussed.

And from the design of BOBF, it is easy to imagine that the refractories of tuyeres part are subject to high temperature. Therefore some
way must be found to cool down the refractories. However BF needs to run continuously and the refractories must be changed without
any interruption of the operation. If refractories need replacing at frequent intervals, this might pose a technological challenge.

An advantage of this process is to save generation of CO2 gases as mentioned above. However biggest environmental problem with BF
is coke ovens. This problem will not be solved drastically unless the use of coke is removed from the process.

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 Schedule for developing the process

Optimum design of BOBF

An optimization procedure is needed to verify and develop the smooth operation of this process. First of all, physicochemical aspects
will be treated extensively, especially the decarburization rate, refractory life, rate of slag making, etc. as they are still not enough
considered for this process. These factors are directly related to the performance of the iron and steelmaking. As mentioned above, it
should be possible to identify the reaction behaviors in BF and OBF (BOBF) include the reaction between vessel (refractory) and steel
and/or slag by the aid of previous data and results in the field of conventional iron and steelmaking processes. And it is integral to
optimize the design of BOBF based on a laboratory experiments and simulations of the process.

The decarburization rate should be calculated from the previous data for the BOF as well as laboratorial experiments. The refractory life
of OBF may be limited by the local corrosion depth at slag-steel boundary. The local corrosion depth is governed by the slag and steel
composition. A knowledge of the proper slag composition and control of the same without decrease in process efficiency are
indispensable to extends the life of the refractory. The life of refractories depends on their composition and structure. Fortunately,
relationship between the life of refractories and their properties under various conditions are investigated by many researchers. These
previous data should be useful to discuss the life of refractory for this process. In addition to the discussion from these viewpoints, the
shape of vessel may be discussed to realize the long lifetime of refractory as well as to promote the desired reaction efficiently.

The efficiency of the steelmaking will be influenced by the rate of slag making as well as the slag foaming. And the slag amount must be
reduced as much as possible. These problems should be treated from the viewpoint of unit processes that form part of the total system.

Detection of the technological problems from the design and simulations

From the design of this process, some technological problems are detected. As shown in Fig. 1, outer refractory wall of the OBF is
protected from corrosion by liquid steel because of the inner cylindrical wall. Properties (composition, structure, etc) of the outer
refractory wall are almost the same as the conventional refractory used for the BF hearth. However, in this process, the inside wall of
cylindrical refractory (side and bottom) is exposed to metal, gas and sometimes slag under severe condition. The refractory for the
furnace must be chosen carefully or if conventional refractory is not enough for OBF, a proper refractory for this process should be
developed.

As mentioned above, the hot metal processing must be omitted due to the combination of BF and BOF processes in the present case. This
is not technological problem but weak point of this process. If this process is applied for high purity steel making, this problem should be
overcome by developing and expanding the secondary refining process into hot metal processing.

The removal and reinstallation of OBF is an expected problem. The OBF must be changed continuously, that is, without stop the iron
and steelmaking operation. An idea to change OBF is shown in Fig. 2.

In addition to these technological problems from the design, physicochemical approach will be employed to establish the model of
MUSE-K process. It is hoped that, from the modeling of the process, other technological problems will be detected.

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 Tap hole from which liquid pig iron is
poured down into a vessel Just the parts of OBF which are
damaged seriously should be repaired
Concave surface (like a valley) or exchanged.
Rotating direction

New OBF Used OBF

Flat surface

MgO - Refractory coated with anti- Pig iron flow

oxidation materials

Figure 2 A rotating mechanism for exchanging installed OBF horizontally

Conducting laboratorial experiments and developing the theoretical treatments

Laboratorial experiments will be carried out based on the modeling and calculation of mass and heat balance. At first, the heat and mass
balance calculations towards a thermochemical modeling of the MUSE-K process will be done to make sure of the validity of this
process before the laboratory experiments. It will also provide the quantitative analysis of process advantages and eventual draw backs.

After that, the reaction behaviors, i.e., decarburization rate, refractory life, rate of slag making, etc. in BF and OBF (BOBF) should be
investigated by laboratorial experiments. An understanding of thermodynamics, transport phenomena and identifying the elementary
process are indispensable to make a model for this process.

The results obtained by these simulation model and the simulations of the process by the aid of previous data and results in the field of
conventional iron and steelmaking processes will be employed for the optimum design of BOBF. And the experimental setup is
constructed based on the information which obtained by the modelling. Some unknown problems should be detected by the laboratrial
experiment and the modlling. However these problems can be overcome because this process has not any principal problems from
thermodynamic, kinetic and technological points of view.

Construction of plants
After laboratorial experiments and developing the theoretical treatments, the small model plants will be constructed as a large-scale
laboratory experiment. The experiment (construction of plant) will start from semi pilot plant scale and will be scaled up step by step.

While constructing the semi pilot plant reactor, some efforts to enhance the capacity of BOBF will be made. For example, a life test of
the refractory is carried out in this plant and development of long life refractories will be attempted. An attempt to increase the reduction

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rate in OBF will also be made to save energy and time for the process.

The all design of significant part of the plant would be fixed at this stage.
The practical scale of BOBF should be discussed before construction of a pilot plant by considering the technical problem, such as the
changing mechanism of used OBF and refining capacity of OBF.

Finally, the pilot plant will be constructed based on the semi pilot plant result. At this stage, it is hoped that all technological problems
are solved and all designs fixed in view of the large investment costs involved for the construction of pilot plant.

Some important effects for this process and issues will be investigated by the pilot plant, i.e., the mass and heat balance, yield rate, the
quality of steel, CO2 emission rate, cost, energy efficiency, amount of slags, scale effect etc. After confirmation of the validity of this
process by the pilot plant, the full scale plant can be confidently designed.

Summary

In this paper, the outline of MUSE-K process was introduced. The process involves a combination of the salient features of blast furnace
technology with Basic Oxygen Furnace for steelmaking to produce steel in a single step. The advantages and uncertainties in this
concept are presented and the ongoing further work is outlined.

Albeit the technological challenges the process present, the concept offers new thinking and offers a promising new process, based
mainly on earlier known concepts.

References

1 H. G. Braun and W. Mathews: Iron and Steel Engineer, August (1984) p. 41.
2 Toshihiro Inatani: Ironmaking Conference Proc., Iron & Steel Soc. AIME., No. 50 (1991) p. 651-658.
3 K. Shiohara: The 2nd EIC Proc. Institute of Metals, (1991) p. 310.
4 Egil Aukrust and Kenneth B. Downing: Ironmaking Conference Proc., Iron & Steel Soc. AIME., No. 50 (1991) p. 659-663.
5 J. V. Keogh, G. J. Hardie, D. K. Philip and P. D. Burke: Ironmaking Conference Proc., Iron & Steel Soc. AIME., No. 50 (1991)
p. 635-649.

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