Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[warwizard]

In reaction_smelter add:

 

[REACTION:STEEL_MAKING2]
[NAME:make bessemer steel bars using BITUMINOUS Coal]
[BUILDING:SMELTER:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:1:BOULDER:NO_SUBTYPE:INORGANIC:COAL_BITUMINOUS]
[REAGENT:B:2:METAL_ORE:IRON]
[REAGENT:C:8:BOULDER:NO_SUBTYPE:NONE:NONE][REACTION_CLASS:FLUX]
[PRODUCT:100:8:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:STEEL][PRODUCT_DIMENSION:150]
[SKILL:SMELT]

 

[REACTION:STEEL_MAKING3]
[NAME:make bessemer steel bars using Lignite Coal]
[BUILDING:SMELTER:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:1:BOULDER:NO_SUBTYPE:INORGANIC:LIGNITE]
[REAGENT:B:1:METAL_ORE:IRON]
[REAGENT:C:4:BOULDER:NO_SUBTYPE:NONE:NONE][REACTION_CLASS:FLUX]
[PRODUCT:100:4:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:STEEL][PRODUCT_DIMENSION:150]
[SKILL:SMELT]

 

Then in entity_default

Add:

        [PERMITTED_REACTION:STEEL_MAKING2]
        [PERMITTED_REACTION:STEEL_MAKING3]

Into the list of reactions the civ can use

Save the files then generate the world.

The reaction using the BITUMINOUS generates 8 Steel, and the one with the LIGNITE produces 4 Steel. A separate fuel is not required.

[Urist Da Vinci]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer_process

- This should be a large special workshop (i.e. 5x5). Perhaps requires a large bellows tool item to construct the building (as opposed to 19th century air pumps!)
- The vessel is made of steel with a fire clay block refractory lining.
- The reagents are (molten) Pig Iron and air, plus a tiny amount of additives later

The advantage of the bessemer process over the DF steelmaking process (pig iron+[wrought]iron+coke+flux) is that you are decreasing the carbon content of the pig iron rather than having to add carbon to wrought iron. Also, you don't need as much flux or coke.

For processing batches of ore/coke/flux into pig iron, you may be thinking of a blast furnace:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_furnace
In order to produce molten pig iron for the bessemer process you would essentially need an integrated blast furnace into the same workshop, so that both tasks could be done in one job. The bessemer process doesn't work if the pig iron has already cooled.
A blast furnace would produce pig iron directly from ore+coke (not unrefined coal!)+flux, and has the advantage over the DF process that you are not trying to produce pig iron bars from iron bars.

[warwizard]

"hot blast was developed to the point where fuel consumption was cut by one-third using coke or two-thirds using coal" in your blast furnace ref... so we should be able to use our bituminous and lignite coal types, and I just provided the reactions, you would have to do your specialized smelter on your own, this being my first published attempt at doing a mod. The reactions as presented will result in a job showing up in a standard smelter, to change it to a custom building you would need to change the "[BUILDING:SMELTER:NONE]" line to be referencing your custom workshop.

[Agent_Irons]

There are some pretty exhaustive 14th century metalworking mods out there that include bloom hammering and puddling and so on. I don't think anyone has done a bessemer process for 40.xx, though older versions are likely to work.

[GavJ]

1) That's like, 19th century, dude, not anywhere close to 14th century. Bessemer was a lot closer to the time when you'd be refining uranium and aluminum than it is to dwarven times. If that's how you roll, then okay, but just FYI in case you didn't know.

2) The name is typo'ed in the reaction descriptions in game.

3) The building should have higher than usual material requirements, such as magma-safe stone AND refractory material (dolomite by itself cut into firebricks OR something made in a kiln via some other recipe, such as [wheat or reeds or other fibers + sand + fire clay or kaolinite] fired into firebricks, either acceptable) AND a mechanism or two.

4) They would almost certainly NOT use raw coal, as the sulphur in it would make shit steel. You should replace the two different reactions with just one FUEL reagent one, which takes coke or charcoal by default (refer to other Toady reactions in the file already).  The blast furnaces you refer to work differently, and would be much more able to put up with unrefined coal than the Bessemer process would, where the fuel is intimately snuggled in with your metals.  Bessemer absolutely needs coke or charcoal only.  Besides, even if you insist on coal, at the very least, you shouldn't be UNABLE to use refined fuel, like you have it now.

5) Bessemer is a large bulk process. You should increase the numbers of reagents and products both so that the player is required to load in, like, 5-10x as much of all those materials at once per firing. It looks like you started to do this, but you didn't go nearly far enough, considering the sizes of boulders and bars, etc. in DF.

[warwizard]

1) That's like, 19th century, dude, not anywhere close to 14th century. Bessemer was a lot closer to the time when you'd be refining uranium and aluminum than it is to dwarven times. If that's how you roll, then okay, but just FYI in case you didn't know.

The Blast furnace was quite ancient, used in China around 2-300 BC, if you want to call it a blast furnace mod, just change the output to pig iron instead of steel. The Bessemer idea is to take the output of the blast furnace and blow air through it and then cast it into bars, If you can manage to do that with the molten output of a blast furnace you do not have to spend the fuel to reheat the charge

2) The name is typo'ed in the reaction descriptions in game.

Please specify, and I'll be happy to fix

3) The building should have higher than usual material requirements, such as magma-safe stone AND refractory material (dolomite by itself cut into firebricks OR something made in a kiln via some other recipe, such as [wheat or reeds or other fibers + sand + fire clay or kaolinite] fired into firebricks, either acceptable) AND a mechanism or two.

I totally agree even leather for the bellows to blow the air through, I invite someone to come up with the building raws for the custom blast furnace+ Bessemer smelter

4) They would almost certainly NOT use raw coal, as the sulphur in it would make shit steel. You should replace the two different reactions with just one FUEL reagent one, which takes coke or charcoal by default (refer to other Toady reactions in the file already).  The blast furnaces you refer to work differently, and would be much more able to put up with unrefined coal than the Bessemer process would, where the fuel is intimately snuggled in with your metals.  Bessemer absolutely needs coke or charcoal only.  Besides, even if you insist on coal, at the very least, you shouldn't be UNABLE to use refined fuel, like you have it now.

For using Coke, then make another reaction (Steel_making4) where you remove the bolder of the coal type and substitute coke or charcoal for that reagent, I'm taking the molten output from the blast furnace and blowing air through it for 10 to 20 minutes, I do NOT need to provide a separate fuel for that step, however the lining of the Bessemer reaction chamber was dependent on the impurities you face with your ores. Take your pick when designing the building, I am inclined to require another stone as a reagent instead of putting it in as a building material.

5) Bessemer is a large bulk process. You should increase the numbers of reagents and products both so that the player is required to load in, like, 5-10x as much of all those materials at once per firing. It looks like you started to do this, but you didn't go nearly far enough, considering the sizes of boulders and bars, etc. in DF.

the small backyard blast furnace is quite ancient and hardly a bulk process, you could scale up the reaction the basic bit reaction already takes 11 trips to charge it, and the Lit one takes 6, so you are looking for 30 to 110 hauling jobs, looks like an excellent reason to have a mine cart and a dump stop and you could simulate a continuous operation by continuing to dump more while it's running a job, (look out Urist!)<DUMP>

[GavJ]

[NAME:make bessermer steel bars using BITUMINOUS Coal]

However the lining of the Bessemer reaction chamber was dependent on the impurities you face with your ores.

There is no passive or simple method of removing sulfur in particular using the Bessemer process. Early on, in fact, there was no method at all of removing sulfur, and you simply couldn't use it with sulfurous fuels (i.e. most coals). Only awhile after the invention of the process, they discovered some added slags and methods you can potentially add to increase ability to neutralize sulfur, but:

1) They are still of limited effectiveness, and they are very expensive and complicated. You have to get a bunch of calcium and/or magnesium flux first (extra reagents for you), then you have to inject them with a lance (more complicated building and skills), then you have to skim the slag which you can otherwise normally avoid as much, then you also end up ruining your lining (which also needs to be magnesium oxide rich and more exotic) which then has to be replaced, at expense and time.
2) Everything mentioned above is stuff you still would only consider doing AFTER coking your coal, not instead of it, if your coal has any sulfur in it (which most does). Because doing all of the above things is vastly more expensive per amount of sulfur removed than simply coking it. So you would still always do that first.
3) These methods would be rarely employed EVEN IF you only had high sulfur fuel, because there would always also be the alternative of a normal blast furnace. Blast furnace technology, although it uses more fuel, still almost always would save money with high sulfur fuels. This is because you can run a blast furnace in reduction, unlike a Bessemer furnace, which offers a much cheaper way of removing sulfur.  So most of the time, if your only fuel was sulfurous, you'd just use a blast furnace and more fuel instead of fussing around with all the expensive magnesium nonsense. You would only ever use that if simultaneously you had very little fuel available AND it was sulfurous AND you had the magnesium available affordably.

(Or, perhaps more likely, if your only fuel was super high in sulfur, you just wouldn't set up shop at all, since you'd be unable to compete affordably. But I digress)

The Blast furnace was quite ancient, used in China around 2-300 BC, if you want to call it a blast furnace mod, just change the output to pig iron instead of steel. The Bessemer idea is to take the output of the blast furnace and blow air through it and then cast it into bars, If you can manage to do that with the molten output of a blast furnace you do not have to spend the fuel to reheat the charge

As noted in the above paragraphs, it's not "just" an issue of blowing some air in afterward. Blowing the air fundamentally restricts the chemical environment to oxidation, which significantly limits one's abilities to remove certain impurities affordably. This leads to a tradeoff between amount of fuel versus restriction on the necessary quality and purity of ingredients. Bessemer is less fuel intensive, but more ingredient pure (including fuel).

the small backyard blast furnace is quite ancient and hardly a bulk process

I'm talking about Bessemer. I admit I don't know why exactly, but numerous sources cite 3-5 tons final product as being the smallest Bessemer batch. It seems unlikely to me that this is a consistent market restriction, versus a chemistry one. Could be wrong.

Regardless, in terms of gameplay, I think the extra planning required to make 50 hauling jobs or whatever without your dwarf falling asleep in the process makes it a little more fun. You have to think ahead and make stockpiles right next to it, etc.

[warwizard]

thanks, I'm 59 and my eyesight combined with the default font made the rm look line an m. It's now fixed on the OP.

[warwizard]

Gav] what do you think about requiring a few pieces of goblinite (scrap iron) added to the process? I have no clue HOW I could get it added as a reagent, just the thought of adding in the scrap metals would keep it cheap, less fuel used to melt the goblinite in the long run.

[GavJ]

I'm not sure what you're getting at there. There's no reason to smelt already pure iron. It would just take up space and fuel and stuff without much benefit.

[warwizard]

You might add pure iron to the Bessemer process to help control the % of impurities in the final product.

[GavJ]

You might add pure iron to the Bessemer process to help control the % of impurities in the final product.

But why?

This is like saying that it would be a good idea to take 10,000 gallons of nice fresh water from the output of a desalinization plant, and just pump it right back into the seawater intake "to make the input less salty." Yeah, it'll do that. It'll also cause you to wastefully re-boil all that water and go bankrupt.

[Agent_Irons]

You might add pure iron to the Bessemer process to help control the % of impurities in the final product.

But why?

This is like saying that it would be a good idea to take 10,000 gallons of nice fresh water from the output of a desalinization plant, and just pump it right back into the seawater intake "to make the input less salty." Yeah, it'll do that. It'll also cause you to wastefully re-boil all that water and go bankrupt.

If I understand metallurgy correctly(a big if) steel manufacturing is all about the proper carbon concentration. Too low, and it's iron, too high, and it's pig iron, which is brittle and sucks.
Whelp I did some googling and this is just wrong. In terms of carbon concentration, it goes Steel/wrought iron/(cast iron|pig iron|white iron|grey iron|et cetera). So the chief problem in terms of steelmaking is getting all the carbon(really, all the sulfur, because apparently that just ruins it) out of your pig iron, not hitting the magic steel threshhold. Although that's kind of a simplification? High-carbon irons with no slag or sulfur can be heat-treated to make them very hard/strong indeed.

So if you had some pure iron (idk how you got it, armok gave it to you? You have a big blast furnace you run in reduction? Electrolysis?) you might conceivably alloy that with some pig iron you found and heat-treat the result?

Iron is complicated.

[GavJ]

Other way around:

High to low carbon = pig iron > steel > wrought iron

And you can remove carbon by oxidation into CO2 in a hot enough environment, which just bubbles off or is carried away with the original oxygen bearing source.  Getting rid of carbon content is not particularly difficult conceptually. It was difficult for medieval folks only due to the high temperatures required, which were harder to achieve than now. Well also, you have to ensure good surface area contact, but that's also not conceptually difficult. In a puddling furnace, for example, they literally just stir iron with a glorified spoon while they blow air over it, for example.

Conversely, you add carbon by reduction - that's why a blast furnace run in reduction produces very high carbon pig iron, which has to be refined back into iron or steel in finery forges or puddling furnaces.

Hence the tradeoff I mentioned earlier: blast furnaces require an extra step and thus more fuel to reheat a whole different furnace again and remelt pig iron all over. BUT they allow less pure ingredients, because the existence of a reduction AND an oxidation step gets rid of almost everything impure -- one of the two or the other, together. Pig iron is uselessly brittle from carbon, but it is quite free of many other troublesome impurities.

[Agent_Irons]

So then if you had wrought iron from goblinite, you could conceivably just alloy it with the pig iron from the blast furnace to get steel? Would that work? It might save some time over puddling it, for instance.