Blast Furnace Operating Results

With a 95% Mill Scale Burden

by C. W. Hatheway

Early in October 1965, in antici- of the banking burden was raked

pation of cessation of open hearth Table I. Principle Dimensions of Massillon out and inspection proved the lin-
operations in the Massillon, Ohio, Blast Furnace. ing to be in very good condition.
plant of Republic Steel Corp., it was After the usual repairs and prelimi-
decided to continue operation of the Hearth Diameter 18 ft 6 in. naries, it was blown-in September
blast furnace for 10 to 12 days to Bosh Diameter 22 it 6 in. 20. With no pellets available that
Bosh Height 11 ft 3 in.
determine the feasibility of charging Bosh Angle 79° 55 min. late in the season, the burden con-
a high percentage of alloy blooming Iron Notch to Center Notches 4 ft 8 in. sisted of 93.4% run of mine Mesabi,
mill scale to produce a grade of pig Cinder Notches to GL Tuyeres a it 4 in. Old Range, and Labrador ores and
Iron Notch to Top 92 ft 0 in.
iron suitable for future use in the Stock line to Top 16 it 0 in. 6.6% mill scale. As would be ex-
Stock line Diameter 17ft6in. pected with this type burden, the
Canton, Ohio, plant's electric fur- Large Bell Diameter 12 ft 8 in.
naces. A considerable inventory of Large Bell Angle 52° 30 min. furnace operation was erratic and
Small Bell Diameter 5 it 0 in. the coke rate high. In order to
this scale has accumulated in the Working Volume 22.900 ft"
Canton plant, because the blast fur- Number of Tuyeres 10 "sweeten up" the burden, borings
Number of Stoves 4 and turnings were later added along
nace there is very limited in the Total Heating Surface Stoves 325.312 ft'
amount it can consume, due to the I-Turbo-Blower-Capacity 50000 dm @ with the increased percentages of
excessive nickel and chrome content 18 lb pressure scale, as Table III will illustrate.
of the scale. There is also at Canton As can readily be seen, with the
a great amount of magnetic slag increase of scale and purchased
scrap, recovered from the melt scrap in the burden, there was a
shop's slag dump, likewise unsuit- Table II. Production Record Established in
May 1956 With Pellets And Sinter in Burden.
decided improvement in both pro-
able as regular blast furnace feed. duction and coke rate. Later, it was
Since the Massillon furnace was op- determined to be more ~conomical
erating satisfactorily on a fairly Production. net tons for month 30539 to use more scale and less scrap,
Production, net tpd 985
high charge of low alloy scale, the Coke rate, lb/NTHM 1435 even though some scale had to be
idea was conceived of converting Wind, dm 50400 purchased. Because of hot metal
Slag vol., lb/NTHM 845
these otherwise waste materials into Blast Temp., OF 1150 alloy specifications, we could use
a special pig iron at the end of open Top Temp., OF 316 little of the Canton stock pile scale
hearth operations. In planning this Burden ratio 2.03
Burden mixture: and the current production from our
operation we had aimed to arrive at Run Mine Ores, ~t 26.7 mills was not alone sufficient to sup-
a burden consisting of 75% scale and Own Make Sinter. % 11.1
Reserve Pellets. % 34.0 ply our needs.
25 % slag scrap. However, the phos- Mill Scale, % 12.8 As mentioned earlier, the furnace
phorus content of the scrap prohib- Borings & Turnings, % 12.2
Furnace Scrap, % 3.2 operated very erratically on the
ited its usage in that amount be- Silicon in Hot Metal, % 0.99 high ore percentage burden--hang-
cause of the low phosphorus specifi- Sulfur in Hot Metal, % 0.036
Flue Dust, lb/NTHM 168 ing, slipping, scabbing up, and skin-
cation for electric furnace iron. As Delay Time, min/day (incl. casts.) 20 ning off. Much of this was due to
will be shown later, it was neces- poor stockline distribution caused
sary to reduce the scrap charge to by frequent failure of the charge to
5%. the pellets were reloaded and slide off the large bell. It was found,
A brief description of the furnace shipped to our nearby Canton fur- as we increased the scale and de-
is given in Table I. nace. In August 1964, it was decided creased the ore in the charge, these
The furnace was completely re- to resume iron and steelmaking in troubles lessened. It was this im-
lined and blown-in July 8, 1955. A the Massillon plant. What remained provement in operations that led up
new production record for this fur-
nace was established in May 1956 as
shown in Table II. Table III. Resume of Operations, October 1964-0ctober 15, 1965.
The furnace was banked July 1,
1960, due to business conditions. Pre-
suming a resumption of operations Fe in Coke Stone Dust Wind
Ore, % Scale, % B&T,% Charge Net tpd Rate Rate Rate Rate
later in the year, the ore storage
yard was stocked with the usual
Oct. '64 84.1 15.9 55.2 732 1826 816 204 47000
winter's supply of ores, including Nov. 81.4 18.6 56.1 748 1758 821 175 46000
40,000 gross tons of Reserve pellets. Dec. 76.4 18.9 4.7 57.1 747 1729 862 172 46000
.Jan. '65 81.9 11.9 7.2 56.5 722 1765 868 162 46000
In 1963, when prospects of resumed Feb. 64.7 20.3 15.0 60.8 773 1582 724 151 44000
operation appeared very slight, Mar. 58.7 23.4 17.9 61.7 804 1534 674 172 45000
Apr. 55.3 26.7 18.0 62.1 803 1550 680 159 46000
May 58.2 18.9 22.9 62.5 858 1461 620 178 46000
.June 52.9 30.0 17.1 62.6 826 1602 638 163 47000
.July 54.3 32.7 13.0 61.5 834 1623 663 139 48600
C. W. HATHEWAY is blast furnace su- Aug. 52.1 33.4 14.5 62.9 787 1693 749 217 47400
perintendent, Central Alloy District, Re- Sept. 54.0 35.0 11.0 62.5 773 1740 822 194 48400
Oct. 44.2 44.1 11.7 64.1 832 1719 789 188 47400
public Steel Corp., Massillon, Ohio. (14.5 days)

52--JOURNAL OF METALS, FEBRUARY 1967


Table IV. Analyses of Raw Materials Used.
FE p CaO
Hamilton R.M. Ore 52.35 0.071
Alloy Scale
Sample No.1 63.11 0.012
Sample No.2 68.45 0.013
Sample No.3" 66.55 0.030
Slag Scrap
Sample No.1 60.00" 0.137
Sample No.2" 61.74 0.300
Limestone
... Research Center analyses
"" Determined by water displacement method
to the decision to experiment with
even greater percentages of the high
alloy scale at the cessation of open
hearth operations.
Loading of both scale and slag
scrap was begun immediately at
Canton, and shipped to Massillon in
order to have a sufficient quantity
on hand for the experimental run.
Samples were taken for both the
local and Research Center labora-
tories, for chemical and screen an-
alyses (see Table IV).
The Canton blooming mill rolls
ingots from both the open hearths
and electric furnaces, with much of
the latter's production being various
grades of stainless steels. Particles of
ceramic hot tops were scattered
throughout the piles. It was our
hope that after unloading over the
car dumper and stockpiling, there
would be some semblance of blend-
ing by the time the scale reached the
stockhouse larry car (see Table V).
This table illustrates the fineness
of the principle material in the pro-
posed burden, 49% minus 4 mesh
and 13 % minus 28 mesh. However,
we felt that with a burden of 25%
scrap to provide coarser material we
should have no difficulties. But then
our electric furnace people informed
us that if the pig iron was to be used
in their furnaces the phosphorus
must be as low as possible and be-
low 0.090%.
Accordingly, we had to back down
to 10% scrap. With this in mind it
was decided to reduce the blowing
rate to 44,000 or 43,000 cfm. In fact,
due to the limitations of the pig
casting machine, we had to resort to
some "fanning" periods at 15,000
cfm. Past experience in reduced op-
erations had proven that this type
of operation was preferable to a
lower overall wind rate.
At midnight of October 15, in an-
ticipation of the open hearth shut-
down early that day, scale was in-
creased to 55%, borings and turn-
ings removed and replaced with
+lln. +lhln.
Scale 0.51 19.24
Slag Scrap 60.12 91.18
enth day, one cast contained 0.045
sulfur as a result of some bosh
"skinning" and a few hours of some
MgO Mn Ni Cr "sloppy" tuyeres, the second bad
period previously mentioned, but
fortunately of short duration. Phos-
7.00 1.99 0.58 0.56 0.64
phorus declined steadily as the per-
6.46 0.28 0.88 0.42 0.33 centages of ore and slag scrap were
2.88 1.26 1.10 0.37 0.45
5.48 1.06 0.62 0.22 0.64 0.32 0.60 reduced. Manganese content was not
specified.
8.65 1.08 13.53 5.92 2.00 0.13 0.38
12.44 2.43 2.45 0.76 3.78 0.14 1.36 Since recovery of nickel and
2.00 0.50 42.45 7.95 chrome was one of the principle
aims of the experiment, it was a case
of the higher the better. We were a
bit disappointed that they didn't run
higher. As will be noted, the nickel
leveled off near 0.45 % and the
2000 lb of slag scrap, and the wind chrome near 0.95%.
reduced to 43000 cfm. The furnace .Fig. 2 shows the wide variations
operated quite smoothly on 13 to 14 in the slag composition. As antici-
lb blast pressure, as it did through- pated, this was the greatest problem.
out the period, except for two spells Due to the wide range of silica and
of short duration as will be shown alumina, as shown in Table IV, it
later. was next to impossible to make ac-
Table VI illustrates the gradual curate stone adjustments as the per-
replacement of ore by scale and the centage of scale was increased. We
reduction of scrap necessitated by could only guess at it by using an
phosphorus in the iron. The change average. In most cases, the slags
in wind rate on the third day was were too limey, but there were a
due to a spell of rolling late in the few that were fairly lean. However,
day. The wind rate was reduced to it was only in the last two days that
42,000 cfm for about 8 hr. Rather the slag caused any difficulties. That
than helping, this reduction caused was when the alumina reached the
the furnace to hang-up, with oc- 15.5 to 16.5 range. These slags ap-
casional heavy slips. The wind was peared hot and fluid at the monkey
then increased to 44,000 cfm and the and iron notch but quickly became
furnace soon straightened out. Later heavily crusted and bloated in the
it was reduced again to 43,000 cfm runners. This resulted in heavy
and it continued to operate smoothly clean-ups but no appreciable flush-
thereafter. Evidently, the 42,000 cfm ing or casting difficulties. If the ex-
rate was too low. The filling se- periment was to be repeated, or
quence was OSC/COC/ throughout taken up on a regular production
the run except for 15 charges of re- basis, we believe it would be ad-
verse filling, CCO/CSO/ on two visable to use sufficient dolomitic
separate days, and change to OOC/ stone to provide at least 10% mag-
CSC/ for four days. nesia in the slag. Statistics are
The furnace operated as well on shown in Table VII.
the 95% scale burden as it did in the The pig iron was stocked in three
lower percentages. There were no separate piles, according to nickel
tuyere or cinder notch losses; in fact, and chrome content. It presently is
there were no "wind-off" periods being used in the Canton electric
during the run. furnace shop in the production of
In the evening of October 25, the certain stainless and alloy steels. In
eleventh day, preparations were this operation it replaces some
made to bank the furnace. After the higher priced revert scrap. Nickel
usual coke blank, the slag scrap and recovery is practically 100% in all
the mill scale were replaced with steels produced. Chrome recovery is
100% Hamilton ore, at an ore to similar to that in other charge ma-
coke ratio of 1 to 1. The banking terials, about 100% in stainless heats
was completed at 10: 30 am the fol- and 50 to 60% in alloy steels, due to
lowing day. oxidation during the melting proc-
Fig. 1 shows the range of the vari- ess.
ous elements in the pig iron pro- The average coke rate appears
duced. As expected, the silicons high, but, as was previously ex-
were high. The furnace was pur- plained, the furnace was kept hot to
posely kept hot to be on the safe be on the safe side. At the high level
side during the experiment. The of the scale charge, in the last three
only specification in this regard was full days, the coke rate averaged
to try to keep it under 2.00%. Sul- 1548 lb. Through the experience
fur was no problem. On the sev- gained, we now would have no fear
Table V. Screen Analysis, Pet. Accumulative.
+',4 in. +4M +8M + 14M +28M +48M + 100M + 200M -200M
41.82 51.18 66.82 78.78 87.32 93.60 96.94 99.03 0.97
97.73 98.28 98.64 98.79 98.95 99.20 99.50 99.71 0.29
FEBRUARY 1967, JOURNAL OF METALS-53