The process of oxidizing and removing silicon impurities from hot metal prior to the main steelmaking process. Oxygen or iron oxide scales are introduced to the melt, reacting with the silicon to form a silica-rich slag that is skimmed away. Lowering the silicon content reduces the volume of slag generated later in the basic oxygen furnace.
Heard on the job
Add more mill scale to the ladle to speed up the desiliconisation before we send it to the BOF.
Also heard as
- desiliconization