A historic variation of the Bessemer or open-hearth processes designed to handle high-phosphorus pig iron. The furnace is lined with basic refractory materials like dolomite or magnesite instead of acidic silica. Limestone or other basic fluxes are added to the melt, which react with phosphorus to form a slag that can be skimmed off, preventing cold-shortness in the final steel.
Heard on the job
We can't run this high-phosphorus ore through an acid converter, we need to switch to a basic process.
Also heard as
- Gilchrist-Thomas process
- basic Bessemer process