Converter, Bessemer

Top-Blown Basic Oxygen Process. The top-blown basic oxygen process is conducted ia a cylindrical furnace somewhat similar to a Bessemer converter. This furnace has a dished bottom without holes and a tmncated cone-shaped top section ia which the mouth of the vessel is located. The furnace shell is made of steel plates ca 50-mm thick it is lined with refractory 600—1200-mm thick (11). 

Bessemer-birne, /. Bessemer converter, -ei, /. Bessemer (steel) plant Beasemerizing, -eisen, n. Bessemer iron, bessemem, v.t. bessemerize, Bessemer-schlacke, /, Bessemer slag, -schmelze,/, Bessemer heat, -Stahl, m. Bessemer steel, -verfahren, n. Bessemer process, besser, a. adv. better. 

The impure iron is made into steel by burning out most of the carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus. Today there are three common furnace types for making steel—the open-hearth furnace (85% of U.S. production), the electric arc furnace (10%), and the Bessemer converter (5%). These furnaces differ in construction but the chemistry is basically similar. 

The Bessemer converter is the oldest of the three methods and the fastest (about 15 minutes per charge). However, the speed is a mixed blessing because there is not sufficient time to make analyses and fine adjustments in the amounts of the alloying elements. 

Beryllium difiuoride, dipole in, 293 Berzelius, Jons, 30 Bessemer converter, 404 Beta decay, 417 Bela particle, 417 Bicarbonate ion, 184 Bidentaie. 395 Billiard ball analogy, 6, 18 and kinetic energy, 114 Billiard ball collision, conservation of energy in, 114 Binding energy, 121, 418 Biochemistry, 421 Bismuth, oxidation numbers, 414 Blast furnace, 404 Bohr, Niels, 259 Boiling point, 67 elevation, 325 normal, 68... 

L-D [Linz, Austria and either Dusenverfahren (nozzle process), or Donawitz, the other Austrian town where it was developed] A basic steelmaking process in which oxygen is used instead of air to remove most of the carbon from the molten pig iron. Developed in Austria by the Vereinigte Osterreichisch Eisen und Stahlwerke of Linz, and Osterreichisch Alpine of Donawitz, in the 1930s and 40s commercialized in 1952, and now widely adopted. The furnace is essentially a Bessemer converter, modified with a water-cooled oxygen injector. See also Bessemer. 

Orford An obsolete metallurgical process for separating copper and nickel. Ores containing these metals were smelted in a Bessemer converter, forming matte. This was melted with sodium sulfate and coke, which yielded copper and nickel sulfides, which are immiscible and easily separated on cooling. 

Talbot A semi-continuous steelmaking process which combines the Bessemer and Open Hearth processes. Molten pig iron from a Bessemer converter is poured into an Open Hearth furnace containing fresh ore and lime. Impurities in the pig iron oxidize and enter the slag. The process improves the yield of steel and the throughput of the plant. Introduced by B. Talbot at Pencoed, PA, in 1900 and subsequently adopted in Europe. 

This latter reaction is very slow as written and is of more importance in the reverse, dehydration reaction.) The characterization of these metal and nonmetal oxides as acids and bases is of help in rationalizing the workings, for example, of a basic Bessemer converter in steetmatcing. The identification of these acidic and basic species will also prove useful in develop r a general definition of acid-base behavior. 

FIG. 26 7. Bessemer converter, used for making steel from pig iron. 

Piston Compressors and Blowers.—The large quantities of air required for blast-furnaces and Bessemer converters are usually supplied by piston compressors of large capacity, driven either by steam or gas engines. Turbo-blowers directly driven by steam turbines, however, have been recently developed for this work. 

FIGURE 14.2 Cut-away view of the main operating details of a Bessemer converter during a blow. It is filled and emptied by tilting onto its side, while the air flow is off. 

The slag is periodically drained off. The molten copper(I) sulfide is drawn off into a Bessemer converter, where it is again heated and treated with air. This oxidizes sulfide ions to SO2 and reduces copper(I) ions to metallic copper. The overall process is... 

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