Patent ID: 6939391

Claim:
A direct smelting process for producing ferrous metal from a ferrous feed material which includes the steps of: (a) forming a bath of molten metal and molten slag in a metallurgical vessel; (b) injecting ferrous feed material into the molten bath and smelting the ferrous feed material to metal in the molten bath; (c) injecting solid carbonaceous material into the molten bath; (d) generating a gas flow in the molten bath at least in part b reactions of injected material in the bath which carries molten material upwardly above a quiescent surface of the molten bath to form a raised bath; and (e) injecting pre-heated air into the vessel such that it impinges on or penetrates the raised bath and post-combusts reaction gases release from or contained within the raised bath, and thereby facilitating heat transfer to the molten bath; which process is characterised by injecting pre-heated air downwardly into the vessel at an angle of 20 to 90° C. relative to a horizontal axis and at a temperature of 800-1400° C. and at a velocity of 200-600 m/s via at least one lance an forcing molten material in the raised bath in the region of a lower end of the lance away from the lance and forming a “free”space around the lower end of the lance that has a concentration of molten material that is lower than the molten material concentration in the raised bath, the lance being located so that: (i) the lance ex ends into the vessel a distance that is at least the outer diameter of the lower end of the lance; and (ii) the lower end of the lance is at least 3 times the outer diameter of the lower end of the lance above the quiescent surface of the molten bath.