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Bessemer converter, schematic diagram. The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also ...
The process differs essentially from the Bessemer process in the refractory lining of the converter. The latter, being made of dolomite ((Ca,Mg)(CO 3) 2) fired with tar, is basic (MgO giving O 2− anions), whereas the Bessemer lining, made of packed sand, is acidic (SiO 2 accepting O 2− anions) according to the Lux-Flood theory of molten oxides.
An important industrial use of ganister was as the mouldable monolithic refractory lining or brick lining for the acid Bessemer converter, a steel-making process developed in 1856 in Sheffield, England. The process could not initially be used successfully by steelworks other than Bessemer's though, owing to its need for a low phosphorus iron ore.
The process is known as basic because fluxes of calcium oxide or dolomite, which are chemical bases, are added to promote the removal of impurities and protect the lining of the converter. [2] The process was invented in 1948 by Swiss engineer Robert Durrer and commercialized in 1952–1953 by the Austrian steelmaking company VOEST and ÖAMG.
Open-hearth steelmaking had superseded the Bessemer process in UK by 1900, but elsewhere in Europe, especially in Germany, the Bessemer and Thomas processes were used until the late 1960s when they were superseded by basic oxygen steelmaking. The last open-hearth furnace in former East Germany was stopped in 1993. In the US, steel production ...
Before the development of the basic refractory lining (with magnesium oxide, MgO) and the wide-scale adoption of the Gilchrist–Thomas process ca. 1880 it complemented acidic Bessemer converters (with a refractory material made of SiO 2) and open hearths because unlike them, the puddling furnace could utilize phosphorous ores abundant in ...
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The Gilchrist-Thomas process (or basic Bessemer process) was an improvement to the Bessemer process, made by lining the converter with a basic material to remove phosphorus. Another 19th-century steelmaking process was the Siemens-Martin process, which complemented the Bessemer process. [58]