Recovery of steel from contaminated scrap

A method for recovering high quality steel and non-ferrous metals from contaminated steel scrap by in-line continuous processing of liquid scrap without the disruptive influence of sub-surface nucleation and growth of carbon monoxide bubbles, a characteristic of steel melts containing dissolved oxygen and carbon, which also avoids high vacuum evaporative distillation but rather employs straightforward physical desorption into an inert strip gas at reduced pressure by ensuring that the carbon/oxygen reaction is under control or its effects unable to disrupt the functionality of barometric legs for continuously transporting molten steel product from reduced pressure vessels or desorbers back to around atmospheric pressure into low level back-mixed liquid sumps by recirculating melt between the basal region of such vessels and these sumps using an adaptation of established RH vacuum degassing practice employing an upleg and a downleg for melt circulation at a rate many times that of the steel product rate and at least in the region of 20 tonnes per minute in conjunction with product metal removal from the liquid sumps, which for 500,000 tonnes per annum of steel production equates to about 0.95 tonnes per minute and thereby ensuring operability of the desorber, continuity of flow of liquid metal as the dispersed phase and the availability of the full diffusional driving forces characteristic of non back-mixed gas/liquid contacting.