Steelmakers are nowadays facing the challenge that quality requirements for their final products are increasing while quality of the raw material input is decreasing. For example fracture toughness of steel continuously increased over the last decades by decreasing the limits for Sulfur and Phosphor content in the steel. On the other hand processing of iron ore with higher Phosphor levels brings significant economic benefits due to the low price of such ore compared to high quality ore low in Phosphor; same can be said for coal high in Sulfur.
To master these challenges hot metal treatment processes have been developed. Principle idea is to remove unwanted elements from the hot metal in a separate process step before the hot metal is charged to the converter. Most important in this respect is the removal of Phosphor and Sulfur, minor topics are Vanadium and Titanium. Hot metal treatment allows further to split the complete steelmaking process in separate process steps which are rather simple and easier to control, making steel production process more robust.
Within the last years HANOI CAT continuously developed and improved its solutions and has now a full portfolio for hot metal treatment. For example for Sulfur removal solutions for treatment in the torpedo car, Sulfur removal in the ladle via mono or co-injection as well as mechanical mixing with stirrer in KR process can be offered. For Phosphor removal treatment solutions in converter or ladle have been developed and successfully implemented in several plants.
