Basic Oxygen Furnace: Equipment

Equipment
Combustion Technology
Energy Consumption
Process Description
R&D Trends

There are three principal categories of oxygen furnaces that are utilized. Click on a category below for more information.

Top Blown Process (BOP)
In the top blown process a water cooled oxygen lance is lowered from the top of the furnace and blows oxygen at supersonic speed into the melt. The majority of U.S. steelmakers utilize top-blown oxygen steelmaking.

Bottom Blown Furnace (Q-BOP)
In the bottom-blown processes, oxygen is introduced through a number of tuyeres in the bottom of the furnace. In the Q-BOP process, the oxygen tuyeres are cooled by injecting hydrocarbon gas through an outer pipe surrounding the oxygen pipe. Most bottom-blown processes use methane or propane as the hydrocarbon coolant, but fuel oil is also used. A principle advantage of the Q-BOP process is that it reduces the height requirements of the process allowing a lower profile building to be constructed.

Combination Processes
One class of combination blown process uses top-blown oxygen with inert gas (argon and Nitrogen) injection through the bottom by means of tuyeres or permeable elements. In the second class of combination furnaces, there are both top and bottom oxygen lances; the bottom lances can also be used for inert gas injection during stirring.