Patent ID: 8562903

Claim:
A direct smelting plant for producing molten metal from a metalliferous feed material using a molten bath based direct smelting process, the plant comprising: (a) a fixed direct smelting vessel to hold a molten bath of metal and slag and a gas space above the bath, the vessel including a hearth and a side wall; (b) a solids feed assembly arranged to supply solid feed material, including metalliferous feed material and carbonaceous material, from a solid feed material supply location away from the vessel and downwardly and inwardly into the vessel and into a slag layer of the molten bath; (c) an oxygen-containing gas feed assembly arranged to supply an oxygen-containing gas from an oxygen-containing gas supply location away from the vessel into the vessel, the oxygen-containing gas feed assembly including: (i) a gas injection assembly including a plurality of gas injection lances that extend downwardly through openings in the vessel and are arranged to inject the oxygen-containing gas into the vessel above the molten bath to combust combustible gases released from the molten bath and (ii) a gas delivery duct assembly including a single gas delivery main and a gas delivery duct extending from a gas supply location away from the vessel and arranged to deliver the oxygen-containing gas to the gas injection assembly, the gas delivery duct assembly including the single gas delivery main connected to the gas injection lances and including the gas delivery duct connected to the single gas delivery main to supply the oxygen-containing gas from the gas supply location to the gas injection lances, and the gas delivery main being located at a height above a lower half of the vessel; (d) an offgas duct assembly that extends from an upper region of the vessel to facilitate flow of offgas from the vessel; (e) a metal tapping assembly to tap molten metal from the bath during a smelting operation; and (f) a slag tapping assembly to tap slag from the bath during a smelting operation; wherein the gas injection lances extend downwardly and inwardly relative to the gas delivery main, and the gas delivery main is spaced away from the vessel so that there is a clearance between the vessel and the gas delivery main to allow removal of the gas injection lances through the clearance.