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Steelmaking Steel is an alloy made by combining iron and other elements, and the most common of these are carbon. When carbon is used, its content in the steel is between 0.002% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Other alloying elements sometimes used are manganese, silicon, chromium, molybdenum, boron, titanium, vanadium and niobium. Carbon and other elements act as a hardening agent, preventing dislocations in the iron atom crystal lattice from sliding past one another. Varying the amount of alloying elements and the form of their presence in the steel (solute elements, precipitated phase) controls qualities such as the hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel. Steel with increased carbon content can be made harder and stronger than iron, but such steel is also less ductile （韧性、可延伸性） than iron. Alloys with a higher than 2.1% carbon content are known as cast iron because of their lower melting point and good castability. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world, with more than 1.4 billion tons produced annually. It is a major component in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons. Steelmaking can be roughly defined as the refining or removal of unwanted elements or other impurities from hot metal produced in a blast furnace （高炉） or similar process or the melting and refining of scrap （废铁，废料）and other forms of iron in a melting furnace, usually an electric arc furnace (EAF，电弧炉或电炉). Its flowchart is shown in Fig.1.When iron is smelted from its ore by commercial processes; it contains more carbon than is desirable. To become steel, it must be melted and reprocessed to reduce the carbon to the correct amount, at which point other elements can be added. Steelmaking is the second step in producing steel from iron ore. In this stage, impurities such as sulfur, phosphorus, and excess carbon are removed from the raw iron, and alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chro