IMPROVING EFFICIENCY OF DC ARC FURNACE USING OXYFUEL BURNERS CUM LANCES AND AUXILIARY ELECTRODES

The energy efficiency of the dc arc furnace is enhanced by certain des ign modifications to accelerate the melting of scrap and DRI (directly reduced iron) by natural gas-oxygen flames and by blowing high purity oxygen into the melt via a set of high velocity oxyfuel burners cum l ances. Intensive bath agitation by the multifunctional oxyfuel burners cum lances, a high energy feedrate, high oxygen blowing rates, slow a nd intermittent vessel swivelling around the vertical axis, and adequa te bath agitation all improve the rate of transfer of thermal and elec trical energy to the bath. The furnace design ensures uniform heat dis tribution across the cross-sectional area of the furnace and minimisat ion of the intensive radiation and high speed convection from the arc to the walls. Two design variants of the modified dc arc furnace have been developed; one is for a single electrode furnace while the other design provides two auxiliary electrodes. IS/1052