Iron and steel industry
Modern architecture would be inconceivable without steel. Cars need lightweight steel bodies with high mechanical strength. As a competent partner to the steel industry, the lime industry promotes the further development of steel products meeting ever higher quality requirements.
Lime is the purifying element in iron and steel production, where it is needed for slag formation and desulphurisation. The process of iron making is the reduction of iron oxide to iron. Iron oxides normally occur as iron ores, which also contain quantities of impurities particularly silica. Thus the commercial ironmaking process also involves the removal of these impurities, usually by forming a slag with lime or dolime.
Lime is normally added as limestone. The heat in the blast furnace decomposes the limestone to lime, which then reacts with the impurities. Quicklime is needed for further processing in the steelworks, where such harmful constituents as phosphorus and sulphur are captured by the lime.
Specially customised mixtures are provided for particularly high-quality steel grades with extremely low sulphur content.
Lime products containing magnesium help to regenerate the refractory materials in the furnaces.