A DIRECT SMELTING PROCESS AND APPARATUS

摘要

A direct smelting process for producing iron and/or ferroalloys on a commercial scale in a metallurgical vessel is disclosed. The process includes injecting solid feed materials into a molten bath via multiple solids injection lances (27) and injecting post-combustion oxygen-containing gas into the vessel via one or more lance (26). The process is characterised by selecting the numbers of solids injection and oxygen gas injection lances and the relative positions of these lances and controlling process operating conditions so that: (i) an expanded molten bath zone (28) that has a raised region (70) forms around the oxygen gas injection region of the vessel between the region and the side walls of the vessel; (ii) splashes, droplets and streams of molten material project upwardly from the raised region and form a curtain (72) around the oxygen gas injection region between the region and the vessel side walls and wet the side walls; and (iii) a "free" space (29) forms around a lower end of the or each oxygen gas injection lance, the free space having a concentration of molten material that is lower than the molten material concentration in the expanded molten bath zone.