Process for making steel from pig iron

A process for producing steel from unrefined molten pig iron in a refining vessel which is characterized by a regular largely ejection-free refining behavior and also by high yield and by low iron losses, which process comprises:

• providing a bath of partially refined pig iron in said vessel
• introducing a refining gas into said bath beneath the top surface of said bath by means of tuyeres mounted in the refractory masonry of the refining vessel, each such tuyere blowing a stream of refining gas surrounded by a protective medium into said bath and said gas stream rising upwardly in said bath and agitating said bath;
• and
• concurrently with the introduction of said refining gas beneath the top surface of said bath, feeding unrefined molten pig iron to be converted into steel, into said bath adjacent to the zone into which said refining gas is fed into said vessel whereby said refining gas and protective medium agitate said unrefined molten pig iron and mix the said pig iron into said bath and the kinetic energy of the refining means contributes to increasing the agitation of the bath.