Use of Refractory in Steelmaking - Developmental Trends

摘要

Iron and steel industry is the major consumer (70%) of refractories. Refractories and steelmaking process technology have constantly been upgraded to increase production capacity and productivity of various steelmaking units. Although various steelmaking processes have been evolved over the last 100 years, the main route of ironmaking is still the blast furnace. Major steelmaking route in integrated steel plant is now BOF. Secondary steelmaking and continuous casting are gradually replacing conventional ingot route of production. In response to these new technologies, there has been an ongoing development of newer types of refractories. With the introduction of newer refractory products and improvement in quality as well as changes in steelmaking technology, specific consumption of refractories in Indian steel industry has gradually come down from a level of 45-50kg/ tcs (eighties) to 8.5-17.9 kg/tcs. World's lowest specific consumption2 is in Japan (7.5kg/t). Earlier, BOF was one of the major consumers of refractories but with manifold increase in lining life, specific consumption in BOF has come down to 0.4-1.0 kg/tcs. With increase in secondary steelmaking processes, operating condition in steel ladle has become severe. Today, steel ladle is a major consumer of refractories and it varies from 2.8 to 6.0 kg/tcs, largely depending upon the type of secondary processes being used. Development trends in refractory materials and lining practices in various units of steel plant are discussed in the following paragraphs.