Electrosmelting of Rail Steel from Directly Reduced Iron

According to research in the electrosmelting shop at AO EVRAZ ZSMK, the partial (up to 55%) replacement of chunk iron by hot-briquetted iron in rail-steel production is feasible and economically efficient. The phosphorus content in the steel is decreased by 0.003%, with constant content of nonferrous impurities. The use of hot-briquetted iron does not affect the productivity of the arc furnace. The consumption of power, natural gas, and coke increases when hot-briquetted iron is introduced in the metal batch. However, that may be compensated by the price difference between chunk iron and hot-briquetted iron.