Everything about Basic Oxygen Furnace totally explained
A
basic oxygen furnace, also known as an
LD converter, is the place within an integrated steel mill where molten iron from the blast furnace is changed into liquid
steel. LD is short for Linz-Donawitz, the names of the two towns in
Austria, near the Voest-Alpine steelworks where the process was developed. The process is known as
basic due to the
pH of the
refractories -
calcium oxide and
magnesium oxide - that line the vessel. The vast majority of steel manufactured in the world is produced using the basic oxygen furnace. Modern furnaces will take a charge of iron of up to 350 tons and convert it into steel in less than 40 minutes.
High purity
oxygen is blown into the furnace or
BOS vessel through a vertically oriented water-cooled lance. This
oxidizes
carbon and the other unwanted
elements in the hot metal. Carbon is oxidised to
carbon monoxide gas, which passes from the converter to a cleaning plant. After cleaning, it can be re-used as a fuel gas. The rest of the elements in the metal are converted to acidic oxides. They combine with the
lime and other
fluxes that are added during the blow - mainly to neutralise the acidic oxides and prevent excessive wear of the lining. This produces a
slag that floats on the surface of the metal.
The steel is tapped from the furnace when it's at the correct temperature and composition. The furnace is tilted and the molten metal is run out via the taphole into a ladle. Once the steel has been removed, the furnace is turned upside down and the slag that's left inside runs into another ladle. The solidified slag can be used in the production of cement and as an aggregate in road building.
The first company in the U.S. to use this type of furnace was the
McLouth Steel (Detroit Steel Company) out of
Trenton, MI.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Basic Oxygen Furnace'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://basic_oxygen_furnace.totallyexplained.com">Basic oxygen furnace Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
