Today, almost two thirds of the world's amount of steel are received using basic oxygen process. On April 22, 1936 KPI’s graduate Mykola Ilarionovych Mozhovyy for the first time in the world realized top oxygen blow of hot metal in one and a half tons of aggregate at the Kyiv plant "Bilshovyk".
M.I. Mozhovyy was born in 1901 in Kyiv in the family of an employee. In 1919 he graduated from the 8th gymnasium in Kyiv and in 1920 was enrolled to Mechanical Faculty of Kiev Polytechnic Institute. During the studying he showed considerable interest in metallurgy. His graduation project Mozhovyy did under the guidance of famous scientist and metallurgist Professor V.P. Izhevskyy and Pro-Rector of KPI Professor T.T. Usenko. After graduation from the institute in 1926 he underwent training in one of the enterprises of Mykolaiv city, in 1927 he was enrolled to postgraduate study of KPI and sent to Leningrad to work in Dipromez where preparations of projects of metallurgical industry enterprises were carried out.
In 1929 Mykola Ilarionovych developed rheumatism and arrived in Kyiv, where he had been taking treatment till 1931. After recovery he went to Leningrad, but in 1932 the disease recurred and Mozhovyy returned to Kyiv, where he had been receiving treatment till 1933.
When M.I. Mozhovyy was in Kyiv he was reflecting on the improvement of metallurgical industry and arrived at a conclusion that significant rise of the performance of steelmaking units could be carried out by using pure oxygen blow of hot metal. In the beginning of 1933 he substantiated this idea in his report in the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The report received positive comments but the Department of metallurgical industry of the USSR People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry treated his ideas negatively.
Then M.I. Mozhovyy addressed to the Leningrad department of AS of USSR, but received an answer about the impossibility of realization of his suggestions because of the probability of an explosion during introduction of oxygen into molten metal. M.I. Mozhovyy did not give up and applied to the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and in 1934 the Institute of Chemistry of AS of Ukrainian SSR agreed to conduct experiments to study the kinetics of chemical reactions of interaction of oxygen with hot metal.
After successful experiments at the plant "Bilshovyk" and several appeals to USSR Academy of Sciences, the Department of metallurgical industry of the USSR People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry in 1936 gave consent to conduct experiments on acceleration of melting in open-hearth furnaces at the Moscow plant "Hammer and Sickle".
In 1937-1938 at the plant "Bilshovyk" the researches were conducted and methods of treatment of hot metal by pure oxygen from above using quartz and graphite tubes in ladles followed by pouring of cast iron in open-hearth furnace for finishing were developed. In 1938 the metallurgical sector for development of suggestions of Mykola Mozhovyy was organized in the Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian SSR. In 1939 at the plant "Bilshovyk" the possibility of supply of powdered substances in the ladle with hot metal with a jet of oxygen was also researched.
In domestic literature a new process was called the basic oxygen process.
In 1940 M.I. Mozhovyy applied to the vice president of the AS of USSR I.P. Bardin, a graduate of KPI of 1910 with the idea of obtaining of steel by using bulk oxygen blow of hot metal. After listening carefully to the message of M.I. Mozhovyy, I.P.Bardin invited him to move to Moscow and decided to help him. With the assistance of I.P.Bardin M.I. Mozhovyy made a report in the government of the USSR about the prospect of the research that he had carried out.
On the ground of the request of M.I. Mozhovyy People's Commissar of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR I.T. Tevosian on September 29, 1945 issued the order about organization of research laboratory under the direction of academician I.P.Bardin in Central Research Institute of Ferrous Metals. And in a relatively short period of time the possibility of using oxygen in metallurgy with the prospect of significant economic effect was proven.
For the period from 3 February, 1945 to 22 June, 1946 137 melts were carried out using oxygen blow: at the plant "Dynamo", Kosohorsk Metallurgical Plant and in experimental research institute of machine tools. Time of carrying out of melts was 6-20 minutes, depending on the amount of fed oxygen and proportion of converter’s and metals volume. Received steel was poured in molds for shaped castings and in lingots for obtaining ingots weighing 750 kg. Analysis of the results of the conducted work – a method of using oxygen blow in the converter deserves great attention, requires comprehensive study and improvement. Steel output was 95-96%, oxygen uptake – about 100%. Macrostructure of ingots and billets and mechanical properties of rolled steel at 20oC were satisfactory.
According to the report of the research work "Obtaining of steel using technically pure oxygen blow of hot metal (in the converter) by method of engineer Mozhovyy M.I." written under the editorship of Ph.D. L.I. Levy in 1946 – it was the beginning of a fundamentally new technique of steel production in the USSR – the basic oxygen process. The report presented the theoretical foundations of the new process and recommendations for their practical use.
In December 1946 M.I. Mozhovyy received a certificate of authorship of USSR №91996 “Technique of production of steel by oxygen blow or by oxygen-enriched air in the converter" with priority from December 31, 1946.
In 1948 the technique of oxygen blow of open-hearth furnace’s bath was introduced at the plant "Hammer and Sickle".
In 1949 M.I. Mozhovyy with a group of scientists and industry leaders led by I.P. Bardin was awarded with the Stalin Prize of the first degree "For the development of technology and industrial introduction of oxygen in metallurgy for intensification of the open-hearth process."
In the USSR at industrial scale the first oxygen blow of hot metal in converters was mastered in 1956 at the plant named after G.I. Petrovsky in Dnipropetrovsk, and in 1957 the oxygen-converter plant was set in operation at the metallurgical plant "Kryvorizhstal”. Ukraine became the second country in the world (after Austria), which successfully mastered the industrial use of oxygen steel-making converters. In Ukraine there are 7 oxygen-converter plants, comprising 21 melting unit. In the whole world 700 converters operate.
Widespread introduction of oxygen in metallurgy made significant changes in the technology of blast-furnace production and steelmaking and secured the rise of performance of units and significant reduction of the fuel consumption and the cost of steel.
It is worth mentioning that the first converter process for obtaining of melted steel by air blow of hot metal through the bottom of the converter fettled with dinas was suggested by G. Besemer in 1856 who received a patent for his technique. The process was named after the inventor – the Bessemer process. In 1878 J. Thomas proposed air blow of hot metal in the converter with basic lining (dolomite) – the Thomas process. In 1949-1950 the research of oxygen blow of hot metal in the converter was conducted in Linz and Donawiz (Austria), and there in 1952-1953 the first industrial oxygen-converter melting was conducted.
In the period from 1955 to 1975 Bessemer and Thomas processes and their varieties were practically ousted by basic oxygen processes, mainly, with supply of oxygen blowing from the top. But the priority of using oxygen for blowing in metallurgical units of hot metal and steel belongs to KPI’s graduate and engineer M.I. Mozhovyy.
M.I. Mozhovyy had been working in Central Research Institute of Ferrous Metals till 1958 as a leader of laboratory, senior scientific associate, team leader and resigned on his own volition due to the second group of disability. M.I. Mozhovyy died in 1959.
Services of Mykola Ilarionovych Mozhovyy to the world and domestic metallurgy are extremely significant. There is a desire to carry out in 2011 International scientific conference dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth and memory of M.I. Mozhovyy and invite participants from foreign countries, and also to place the information about him and his achievements in metallurgy at the State Polytechnic Museum at NTUU "KPI".