Alexandria University

Faculty of Engineering
Production Engineering Department

Fundamentals of Modern
Steelmaking Technologies
proposed by

Shimaa Mohamed Elhadad

presented to

Dr. Mohamed Abd Al-Razzaq

Contents
Introduction
Types of steel
Classification of carbon steel
Modern steelmaking process
Primary steelmaking processes
• Basic oxygen furnace
• DRI based steel making
• Bessemer process
• Open hearth furnace
Secondary steelmaking
• Stirring processes
• Injection processes
• Vacuum processes
• Reheating processes
Continuous casting
Conclusion
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Introduction
 Steel is recyclable and hence is a “green material”.
 Steels are alloys of iron and other elements, primarily carbon, widely
used in construction and other applications because of their high
tensile strengths and low costs.
 Sir Henry Bessemer, (born Jan. 19, 1813, Charlton, Hertfordshire, Eng.
—died March 15, 1898, London), inventor and engineer who
developed the first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively
(1856), leading to the development of the Bessemer converter. He
was knighted in 1879.
 The above attributes make steel to be the most important
engineering material. Around 2500 different grades are produced to
cater the need of several industries ranging from structural to aero‐
space. 3
Types of Steel
Low/mild
Carbon 0.04-0.30%c
steel Medium
0.3-0.60%

High
Steel 0.6-1.50% Low alloy
Up to 2.11%c
up to 5%

Medium alloy
V, W, Cr, Ni etc
up to 5-10%
Alloy
High alloy
steel
up to 10%
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Classification of carbon steel
• Low. Often called mild steels, low-carbon steels have less than 0.30
percent carbon and are the most commonly used grades. They machine
and weld nicely and are more ductile than higher-carbon steels.

• Medium. Medium-carbon steels have from 0.30 to 0.45 percent carbon.

Increased carbon means increased hardness and tensile strength,
decreased ductility, and more difficult machining.

• High. With 0.45 to 0.75 percent carbon, these steels can be challenging to
weld. Preheating, post-heating (to control cooling rate), and sometimes
even heating during welding become necessary to produce acceptable
welds and to control the mechanical properties of the steel after welding. 5
Modern steelmaking process
Due to development of science and technology steelmaking process
can also be updated, nowadays it can be carried out into three steps.

It gives better steel properties and good quality.

1.primary steelmaking
2.secondary steelmaking /ladle metallurgy/post treatment of steel
3.casting process

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Primary steelmaking

Primary steelmaking consists of refining of hot metal or scrap to steel in

a) BOF and b) Electric furnace. The objective is to refine hot metal to
the nearly desired chemistry.
Basic oxygen furnace steelmaking
DRI based steelmaking
Bessemer process
Bessemer and
Open hearth process OH process are
outdated.

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Basic oxygen steelmaking process
• Basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), is a method of primary steelmaking in which
carbon-rich molten pig iron(liquid) is made into steel by reducing the amounts of
carbon, silicon and phosphorous.
• Blowing oxygen through molten pig iron lowers the carbon
content of the alloy and changes it into low-carbon steel.
• The process is known as basic because fluxes
of burnt lime , which are chemical bases, are added to promote the removal of
impurities and protect the lining of the converter.
• The process is done in Basic oxygen furnace BOF (Figure.1)
Figure.1 Basic oxygen
furnace BOF
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Types of basic oxygen furnaces
Top-blown converter process
 Bottom blown converter (Q-BOP/OBM)
Bath agitated process/KOMB

Figure.2 Types of basic oxygen furnaces 9

Sequence of BOF:
(1) charging of scrap. (2) charging of pig iron.
(3) blowing. (4) tapping the molten steel.
(5) pouring off the slag.

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Figure.3 sequence of BOF
DRI based steelmaking
• Direct reduced iron (DRI), also called sponge iron, is produced from the
direct reduction of iron ore into iron by a reducing gas or elemental
carbon produced from natural gas or coal.
• An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats charged material by
means of an electric arc. Arc furnaces differ from induction furnaces in
that the charge material is directly exposed to an electric arc, and the
current in the furnace terminals passes through the charged material.
• An induction furnace is an electrical furnace in which the heat is
applied by induction heating of metal. Induction furnace capacities
range from less than one kilogram to one hundred tonnes capacity and
are used to melt iron and steel, copper, aluminium and precious metals.
• In EAF and Electric induction furnace sponge iron is used.
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Figure.4 Electric arc furnace (EAF)
Figure.5 Electric induction furnace

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Bessemer process
• The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for
the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron prior to the open
hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the
iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron.

Figure.6 Bessemer process

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Open hearth process
• The open hearth process is a batch process and a batch is called a
"heat". Heavy scrap, such as building, construction or steel milling
scrap is added, together with pig iron from blast furnaces.
• This process was known as the Siemens-Martin process, and the
furnace as an "open-hearth" furnace

Figure.7 open hearth

furnace

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Open hearth process steps
1. Cover the hearth with limestone (CaCo3)
2. Charge the scrap at the top of limestone, during charging the burners and oxygen lances
are on in order to melt the scrap
3. Pour the blast-furnace iron usually with metallic composition of 20% scrap, 80% blast-
furnace iron
4. The reaction between carbon and oxide molten scrap will produce carbon monoxide that
will boil to stir the mixture.
5. Slag is flushed off through the doors.
6. By increasing the heat, limestone will boil and release carbon dioxide (Co 2) as: CaCo3
Cao + Co2
7. Flux and alloying elements are added.
8. When temperature and chemical composition are in the specified range, the steel will be
tapped through taphole to ladles

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 Open hearth process

• uses the heat of combustion of gas

fuels to convert a charge of scrap
and liquid blast-furnace iron to
liquid steel.
• checker bricks preheat the
combustion air and, sometimes,
the fuel gas. They absorb heat from
furnace off-gases.
• Charging doors are used in running
off slag.
• at the back wall, there is a taphole
and a spout for tapping steel into
one or two ladles.
• Furnaces built for heats of 10 to
600 tons.

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Secondary steelmaking
• Bottom
Stirring injection
processes • Lance injection

Injection • Powder injection

• Wire feeding
processes

Vacuum • Stream degassing

processe • R-H degassing
• D-H degassing
s
Reheatin
g • VOD process
processe • VAD process
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s
 Stirring processes

• It is process of injection through the

bottom of the ladle or by the means
of a top lance.
• Stirring consists of purging the
liquid steel by inert gas generally
argon or sometimes nitrogen.
• The objective is all cases is to make
sure that the steel is consistent in
temperature and composition, and,
if possible ,to remove impurities.
Figure.8 stirring process
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Injection processes
• Also called ladle desulfurization or
deoxidation
• Most operations find it more effective to
desulphurize during the reduction phase
of steelmaking.
• It is possible to carry out deoxidation
,desulphurization and inclusion
modification introducing suitable material
in the form of powder or wire.
• Material is blown into the molten steel in
the ladle at a high pressure using
submerged top lance with the help of a
carrier gas.

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Figure.9 injection process
Vacuum processes
• Vacuum is created about 0.5
torr is induced to reduce the
partial pressure of hydrogen
,nitrogen and carbon monoxide
in the ambient atmosphere .
• So, that degassing
,decarburization and
deoxidation can be achieved.

Figure.10 degassing process

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Vacuum
processes

Includes the following methods:

a) Stream degassing
b) Ladle degassing
c) R-H degassing
d) D-H degassing

Figure.11 methods of vacuum

steelmaking

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 Reheating processes
• Heat losses occur due to secondary steelmaking to atmosphere ,it is necessary to compensate the
temperature by providing additional temperature.
• VAD vacuum with electric arc heating degassing
• VOD vacuum with oxygen heating degassing

Figure.12 types of reheating process in 22

steelmaking
Casting processes
• Continuous casting, also called strand casting, is the process
whereby molten metal is solidified into a "semi-finished "
 billet, bloom, or slab for subsequent rolling in the finishing mills.
• Prior to the introduction of continuous casting in the 1950s, steel was
poured into stationary moulds to form ingots. Since then, "continuous
casting" has evolved to achieve improved yield, quality, productivity
and cost efficiency.
• This process is used most frequently to cast steel, Aluminium and 
copper are also continuously cast.

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Diagram of casting
vertical, curved ,horizontal, strip casting

Figure.13 Different configurations of

continuous casting

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Conclusion
Steelmaking is an ancient process, and several developments have
taken place in the technology over several years of its use.
Steelmaking is the second step in producing steel from iron ore. In
this stage, impurities such as sulfur, phosphorus, and excess carbon
are removed from the raw iron, and alloying elements such as
manganese, nickel, chromium, and vanadium are added to produce
the exact steel required.
Modern steelmaking processes are broken into two categories:
primary and secondary steelmaking. Primary steelmaking uses
mostly new iron as the feedstock, usually from a blast furnace and
usually have two processes, basic oxygen furnace (BOF) and the
electric arc furnace (EAF). Secondary steelmaking uses scrap steel as
the primary raw material. 25
thank you

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