Technical Overview of Oxygen-Carbon Lances
Fundamental Introduction to Oxygen-Carbon Lances
An oxygen-carbon lance is primarily employed in electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking. It generally refers to the carbon-oxygen lance installed at the furnace door, although wall-mounted variants also exist. The furnace door lance is equipped with two water-cooled nozzles. Configurations vary: some feature two separate water-cooled oxygen lances, while others integrate the functions into a single combined lance.
In the dual-lance design, the nozzles are arranged side-by-side. One is a Laval nozzle delivering supersonic oxygen, while the adjacent nozzle is a carbon gun for injecting carbon powder through a straight-bore injector.
The combined lance design integrates two injectors vertically. The lower nozzle is typically the supersonic oxygen lance (also utilizing a Laval nozzle design), and the upper nozzle is the carbon powder injector.
During the smelting process, the lance at the furnace door is progressively inserted into the furnace as the scrap metal melts.
Advantages Over Traditional Smelting Processes
The implementation of the oxygen-carbon lance in electric furnace operations offers several distinct benefits:
