Oxygen Solutions - Manufacturing steel
Steel is produced by reducing the carbon content of iron from the blast furnace.
This is achieved by injecting pure oxygen into molten iron at the steelworks.
Impure iron from the blast furnace typically contains around 4% carbon. When solidified, iron like this is brittle and has few uses. The carbon content is reduced to between 0.2% and 2% using the basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) process. Oxygen gas is injected into the molten iron under pressure, oxidising carbon to gaseous carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which escape from the molten metal.