What direction-steel?

Abstract

Resource planning for the steel industry is the subject of this 50th Howe Lecture. After first proving that there will be a good market for steel products in the future, particularly in the auto industry as quality requirements are upgraded, the paper describes what iron- and steelmaking technologies may be expected to satisfy these demands. Iron ore supply will not be a problem in the foreseeable future and so most of the research work will be directed at reducing transportation costs and upgrading the raw material. Recent projected blast furnace technological advances are discussed with the emphasis on coke replacement schemes that will help to achieve coke rates of 600 lbs. or less per ton of hot metal. The direct reduction scene is reviewed with special application to reducing electric furnace steelmaking costs. Assessment of steelmaking techniques, both new and old, indicates that the basic oxygen process, whether it be top-, side-or bottom-blown, or even continuous, will dominate the steelmaking scene until the end of this century. In particular, a discussion of the IRSID process of continuous steelmaking is highlighted as the most promising of these schemes. A final look at steelmaking concludes that the electric process will, by 1995, match B.O.F. tonnage, especially with the increasing demand for specialty steels and as the open hearth is phased out. Summarizing the resource planning picture is a section on the most important raw material—energy. The paper points out that even though total energy consumption by the steel industry is continually increasing, steelmakers have done well in improving their efficiency of energy use by continuously decreasing the energy used per product ton. Nevertheless, shortages of energy raw materials are in sight, with the exception of uranium. The only long term hope is in the development of the breeder type nuclear reactor and this must be done before the end of this century.