Assessment of Hydrogen Injection for Molten Steel Deoxidation in the Final Stage of Primary Steelmaking Furnaces
摘要
To investigate the feasibility of hydrogen blowing for deoxidizing over-oxidized molten steel, this study examines the reaction mechanism of hydrogen deoxidation in low-carbon, high-oxygen molten steel. Thermodynamic calculations indicate that a higher carbon content in Fe-O-C melts significantly suppresses the efficiency of hydrogen deoxidation. Experimental validation further reveals that in low-carbon melts (0.02–0.04% C), both C and O concentrations decrease simultaneously during hydrogen blowing. After 20 min, the carbon–oxygen reaction gradually weakens due to the decreasing %carbon (%C), making hydrogen deoxidation the dominant mechanism. The contribution of carbon deoxidation increases with the initial carbon content, accounting for up to 58% of total oxygen removal when (%C) = 0.04%. In high-carbon melts (~ 0.1% C), carbon deoxidation predominates throughout the process, and hydrogen deoxidation essentially ceases after 20 min due to rapid oxygen depletion. Real-time off-gas monitoring confirms that in low-carbon melts, hydrogen and carbon deoxidation reactions occur synergistically but diminish over time, with hydrogen utilization decreasing from 7% at 10 min to 2.05% at 60 min. In high-carbon melts, hydrogen utilization drops sharply from 2.25% at 10 min to nearly zero by 20 min.