The Use of Lime in Iron and Steelmaking

As described in section 25.2, in many countries the iron and steel industry vies with building and construction as the largest market segment for lime. Most of the lime used is for fluxing impurities in the basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) process [27.20]. Lime is also used in smaller quantities in  

The BOS process replaced the Bessemer and open hearth steelmaking processes during the 1960 s and caused some major changes in both the steel and lime industries [27.1, 27.2]. The process is currently used for 70% of the world s steel production, with most of the remainder being in electric arc furnaces (EAF). The main processes in iron and steelmaking are illustrated in Fig. 27.1. 

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Construction and building are treated as one industry in this chapter, to avoid the confusion that frequently arises when attempting to differentiate between them. The industry is a major user of lime products in 1994, for example, it used 36 % of the 19 million tonnes of lime sold in the European Union, compared with 38 % used in iron and steelmaking. 

Iron and steelmaking. As mentioned above, in many industrialised countries, the major use of quicklime, including calcined dolomite, is in steelmaking. While most of the lime is in granular form, modern developments require ground quicklime. Calcined dolomite is also used for the refractory linings of the vessels. 

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