IN THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES

摘要

Many metallurgists believe that coke-less technologies for the production of iron will become commonplace in ferrous metallurgy by the period 2005-2010. This projection is based on the uncertain condition of blast furnaces and coke-oven batteries at existing integrated plants. However, researchers have developed sophisticated methods that may make it possible to modernize these facilities during overhauls and thus prolong their service life, therefore making it unnecessary to resort to the more capital-intensive construction of new furnaces and ovens. As a result, it is actually quite unlikely that new iron-making processes will become the standard at integrated metallurgical plants within the next 25-30 years. These technologies can currently be used as auxiliary processes at the plants, if there is a need for a relatively small increase in total iron production. The methods can also be used to process iron-bearing wastes, including sludge from gas-cleaning systems. Progress on the coke-less production of iron is presently tied to the growth of the mini-mill sub sector. The trend toward mini-mills has been manifest for the last 25 years. More than 300 mini-mills make about 30 percent of the world's steel, producing 828 million tons in the year 2000. We used the ratio of iron production to the steel production to illustrate the growth of the mini-mill subsector by country (Table 1). It is apparent that there are several countries which make almost no pig iron and which produce their steel from scrap metal supplemented by a metallized raw material. The indicated ratio is low for such nations. Thus, in world metallurgy, there is a large niche market for new coke-less processes - a market that does not include integrated plants.