The Effect of Sulfur Concentration in the Metal on the Mass Transfer of Phosphorus in Bloated Metal Droplets

In Basic Oxygen Steelmaking, metal droplets created by the impact of the oxygen jet will swell due to internal decarburization when they react with oxidizing slag in the emulsion zone. In this study, the dephosphorization behavior of bloated metal droplets containing different sulfur concentrations is investigated in the temperature range from 1813 to 1913 K using X‐ray fluoroscopy coupled with constant volume pressure change measurements and chemical analysis of quenched samples. The results show that higher sulfur droplets (>0.017 wt%) have a much longer incubation period for swelling than those with lower sulfur (<0.017 wt%). Due to this different swelling behavior, the dephosphorization rate for high sulfur droplets is found to be not heavily affected by the experimental temperature compared to the case of lower sulfur droplets. Employing a mixed control model including mass transfer and chemical reaction, the effect of temperature on dephosphorization kinetics is further discussed. The mass transfer coefficient in the metal, k m , is found to increase slightly with increasing temperature for droplets with 0.021 wt% sulfur. It is also found that lower rates of CO formation result in less stirring in the droplet and lower mass transfer rates of phosphorus for high sulfur droplets.