Pretreatment of iron for steel production in the Durgapur steel project

Pretreatment, as the term implies, is the treatment or
conditioning of molten pig iron before it is charged into
a steelmaking furnace with a view to improve the speed
and quality of steel production. Steelmaking is fundamentally an oxidation process followed by varying degrees of reduction (deoxidation) of the over-oxidized metal. The metallurgical load during steelmaking in the open-hearth furnace can be appreciably reduced and hence the speed of production appreciably increased if some of the elements in the iron particularly Si and P, could be partially removed. The oxidation of a large part of Si and to some extent of P in the molten pig iron, before it is charged into a basic OH furnace has therefore engaged the attention of many steelmakers.