Comparative Costs of Iron Pretreatment

Abstract

A Considerable amount of information is now available on the methods of pretreatment of blast furnace iron. This paper does not discuss the detailed operations involved, but attempts to compare the economics of the capital investment and process cost involved. Preatment can be divided into two main types: Type 1: Methods which seek to remove a proportion of the silicon. TypeII: Methods which seek to remove the silicon and some part of the phosphorus. As this paper is intended as a basis of discussion on the circumstances which apply in India it deals only with Type 1 pretreatment. The phosphorus contents of Indian irons at present used, and the future sources of iron ore are such that it is suggested that phosphorus removal would give no real advantage in subsequent steelmaking operations.