Impact bed gasifier-melter

Claim 1

Apparatus for producing molten pig iron from iron oxide pellets comprising: (a) a vertical shaft furnace, including means at the top thereof for feeding a solid particulate charge to the interior of said furnace, means at the bottom of said furnace for discharging particulate material therefrom, means intermediate the ends of the furnace for introducing hot reducing gas to the interior of the furnace, and gas removal means at the top of the furnace for withdrawing furnace off-gas; (b) a generally upstanding closed chamber connected to the particle discharge outlet of said shaft furnace for introducing particulate material to the interior of said chamber, and having an iron notch for removing molten iron from the bottom of said chamber, a central impact bed hearth in the bottom of said chamber surrounded by a molten metal pool; (c) heating means for directing sufficient heat onto said impact bed hearth to melt any metallic material on said hearth and form a hot gas; (d) humidifying means for introducing water to the interior of said chamber above said heating means to humidify the hot gas in the chamber; (e) means communicating with said chamber for withdrawing humidified hot gas from said chamber; (f) means for injecting the withdrawn hot gas from chamber into said direct reduction furnace as reducing gas; and (g) a gas passageway communicating with said withdrawal means and said injecting means.