Method of steel smelting directly from iron ore

Abstract

The subject of the invention is a method of smelting carbon steels directly from iron ore in one metallurgical reactor, consisting in introducing fine iron ore and fine fluxes into the reactor from the top of the reactor and a gas reducer in the form of hydrogen or a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the bottom of the reactor and reducing iron oxides in the liquid phase, while the desired final carbon content in the steel is controlled by introducing an amount of carbon directly into the metal bath which ensures that the desired level of carburisation of the steel is achieved, or by introducing a specific amount of carbon reducer in the form of coke breeze into the iron-bearing charge, characterised in that the thermal energy in the reactor is generated in the process of combustion of natural gas with oxygen in the upper part of the reactor, and the supplied excess of natural gas in relation to the amounts resulting from the stoichiometry of the combustion process is thermally decomposed into carbon and molecular hydrogen providing a reducing atmosphere at the bottom of the reactor.

1 . The method of smelting carbon steels directly from iron ore in one metallurgical reactor, consisting in introducing fine iron ore and fine fluxes into the reactor, by blowing, from the top of the reactor and a gas reducer in the form of hydrogen or hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the bottom of the reactor and reducing iron oxides in the liquid phase, while the desired final carbon content in the steel is controlled by introducing an amount of carbon directly into the metal bath which ensures that the desired level of carburisation of the steel is achieved, or by introducing a specific amount of carbon reducer in the form of coke breeze into the iron-bearing charge is characterised in that the gas reducer introduced from the bottom of the reactor flows through the layer of liquid iron oxides and the thermal energy in the reactor is generated in the process of combustion of natural gas with oxygen in the upper part of the reactor, and the supplied excess of natural gas in relation to the amounts resulting from the stoichiometry of the combustion process is thermally decomposed into carbon and molecular hydrogen providing a reducing atmosphere at the bottom of the reactor. 
     
     
         2 . The method of producing steel according to  claim 1  is characterised in that the additional thermal energy is supplied to the metallurgical reactor via the electric arc thermal energy.