2019 Pittsburgh AISTech

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Development and Industrial Validation of a New Lime-Based Slag Conditioner in the BOF Process at Dillinger (Room 409)

The BOF steelmaking route accounts for the majority of steel production globally, producing sophisticated steel grades for challenging applications. Despite all the advancements observed in the last decades, BOF operators need to daily face increasing cost pressure, more stringent environmental regulations and scarcer access to good quality raw material. Lime producer Lhoist launched the development of a new lime based slag enhancer – Booster® – to improve BOF steelmaking by increasing the metallurgical effectiveness of slag. This is achieved by treating a mixture of lime and iron oxides to generate a Calcium Ferrite based agglomerate that melts at lower temperatures, creating a slag faster and with proper viscosity and in the very beginning of the blow. This paper discusses the results of the pilot trials carried out in the 6 t universal converter in BOF mode at MEFOS, the industrial trials and the complete validation campaign in the 190 t BOFs at Dillinger steel-shop.