Experimental study on steelmaking blowing process with O₂ and H₂O top blowing

School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P.R. China
e-mail: liziliang310@163.com

Received: 31 January 2016
Accepted: 19 May 2016

Abstract

In this study, H₂O vapor was introduced in steelmaking top blowing process to relieve the overheating of the hot spot zone. Thermodynamic analysis shows that H₂O not only plays the same role as O₂ in bath reactions, but also releases less heat than O₂ under the same conditions. A novel blowing method using O₂-H₂O gas mixture blowing was studied in the lab in which the volume fraction of H₂O varied as 0 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent. The results indicate that the influences of the gas mixture blowing on bath temperature and decarburization become significant with increasing the H₂O content in the gas mixture. Meanwhile, compared with pure oxygen injection, the dust generation and oxygen consumption reduce in O₂-H₂O gas mixture blowing process.