Melting Iron & Steel By Exothermic Reaction

Technology Description

• The melting of steel requires large amounts of heat produced by electricity. Every tonne of steel melted consumes 650 to 700 KW of electrical energy. With high cost of electricity, the cost burden of electric power per tonne of finished steel castings is very high.
• The usage of conventional fuels like coal, oil and gas are inadequate because the high temperatures required for steel melting cannot be achieved with these fuels. Electricity appears to be the only solution to achieve high temperature for melting.
• However several years of research by OK-em group in this area has evolved a process of metallothermic (exothermic) reaction to generate sufficient heat for steel melting.
• This process has been tested and practiced for over several years and has systematically streamlined the process for industrial application. The process is now available for commercial production of steel castings.
• The major advantage of exothermic melting is savings in electricity from 400 KW to 1 KW, thereby saving 399 KW demand. With this the saving in number of units per ton of steel melting is 600 units and capital investment of INR 100 Lakhs. There is flexibility in batch melting from 10 kgs to 500 kgs.
• In this process the need for sophisticated equipment is eliminated and the metal gets refined automatically. Time required for batch melting is 45 minutes only and can be handled by semi skilled workmen.