An improved direct smelting system and process using a smelt reduction vessel (SRV), and optionally, a cyclone converter furnace (CCF). The improved system and process utilizes a fast quench system in which hot process offgas containing molten material is quench-cooled from greater than 1400? C. (2552? F.) to no more than 600? C. (1112? F.) in a time-of-flight of no greater than 1 second. The quenching occurs using water spray injection and vaporization to cool, stress and break solid slag into slag pieces small enough to remove from the quenching system. The improved system eliminates plant availability problems associated with (i) accretion formation in the offgas train as hot process offgas cools down in a conventional (slow) manner to allow for steam-raising for power generation or other heat recovery purposes, and (ii) trigger mechanisms causing slag foaming events in the SRV that propagate up the offgas train.

A process and apparatus for direct smelting metalliferous material is disclosed. The invention concentrates injection of solid feed materials comprising metalliferous material and carbonaceous material into a direct smelting vessel during the course of the process into a relatively small region within a metal layer in a molten bath in the vessel in order to generate a substantial upward movement of molten material and gas from the metal layer into a region in the vessel that is above the molten bath. In particular, the invention injects the solid food materials with sufficient momentum and/or velocity via an opposed pair of lances that are oriented within the vessel and arranged to form overlapping plumes of injected material in the molten bath.

A method of operating a smelt cyclone, wherein the supply of feed material and/or the supply of oxygen containing gas through an array of tuyeres into the smelt cyclone is controlled in order to control accretions of metalliferous feed material at the inside of the smelt cyclone.

The invention relates to the field of metallurgy and can be used in the making of steel in a single installation that encompasses all of the stages of the making and refining of steel as well as the casting of steel from the installation. The present installation comprises: a casting ladle with two slide gates; a water-cooled roof with electrodes, which is docked to the ladle and is connected to a gas cleaner; a slag runner; dosing bins for adding fluxes and deoxidizers; charging pipes for adding charge materials; a hot metal pouring-in funnel; a jet for injecting natural gas and air or oxygen, which is comprised of coaxial pipes and is mounted in pouring nozzle of the slide gate which is intended for melting process; and, connected to an injection apparatus, a tubule for injecting slag-forming reagents together with an inert gas or nitrogen. The installation is provided with a conveyor, which has a fuel burner and is connected to the roof. In the installation, cavities formed during melting are filled by the adding of grinded scrap and/or pre-reduced pellets, which are heated by furnace exhaust gases and/or additional natural gas flames during their motion on the conveyor covered by the roof and water-cooled. The invention makes it possible to avoid heat loss, reduce fuel consumption and also increase the stability of the process of melting and treating a metal in a single modernized installation under automated conditions without deactivating the installation and removing the furnace roof.

A molten bath-based direct smelting process comprises controlling the process conditions in a direct smelting vessel so that molten slag in a molten bath of metal and slag in the vessel has a viscosity in a range of 0.5-5 poise when the slag temperature is in a range of 1400-1550 C. in the molten bath in the vessel.

A molten bath-based direct smelting process includes controlling the process conditions in a direct smelting vessel so that molten slag in a molten bath of metal and slag in the vessel has a viscosity in a range of 0.5-5 poise in an operating temperature range for the process.

The present invention relates to method and apparatus for treating iron-contained raw material using bath smelting furnace. An iron-contained raw material is mixed with a reducing agent. The mixture is added into a bath smelting furnace. The enriched oxygen is blown into the bath. The smelt is conducted at a temperature of 1200-1600 C. Compared with the traditional process of sintering/pellet-blast furnace smelting or rotary furnace reduction-electrical furnace smelting separation, the present invention has the remarkable advantages of short process, strong raw material adaptability, high product quality, low energy consumption, low pollution, etc. The present invention provides a new technology direction for effectively and comprehensively utilizing the iron-contained resource and has a wide application prospect.

A method of removing a blockage in a solids injection lance under normal operating conditions of a direct smelting vessel is disclosed. The direct smelting vessel contains a bath of molten metal and slag and the solids injection lance extends into the direct smelting vessel and has an outlet end that is submerged in the molten slag. The solids injection lance further has a single inlet coupled to a section of supply line that conveys gas and solid feed material to the solids injection lance. The method comprises (a) advancing a blockage-removing tool through the supply line section and through the solids injection lance to an upstream side of the blockage, (b) operating the tool under elevated gas pressure conditions to remove the blockage such that solid feed material and gas are able to flow through the solids injection lance. The method further comprises (c) retracting the tool from the solids injection lance and the supply line section. Also disclosed is an apparatus for removing a blockage in a solids injection lance extending into a direct smelting vessel.

A molten bath-based direct smelting process comprises controlling the process conditions in a direct smelting vessel so that molten slag in a molten bath of metal and slag in the vessel has a viscosity in a range of 0.5-5 poise when the slag temperature is in the range of 1400-1550 C. in the molten bath in the vessel.

A cold iron source melting ratio estimation device that estimates a melting ratio of a cold iron source charged into a converter-type refining furnace during refining of molten iron in the converter-type refining furnace. The device includes: an input section to which measured values of in-furnace information or estimated values of the in-furnace information is input, the in-furnace information including a molten iron temperature and a carbon concentration in the molten iron during refining; a database section that stores a model equation and parameters related to a refining reaction of the molten iron in the converter-type refining furnace; a computation section that computes the melting ratio of the cold iron source using the measured values or the estimated values input to the input section; and an output section that displays the melting ratio of the cold iron source computed by the computation section.