The at an early stage application of iron to the produce of tools and also weapons was possible because of the large distribution of stole ores and the ease v which stole compounds in the ores could be lessened by carbon. For a lengthy time, charcoal to be the form of carbon provided in the reduction process. The production and also use the iron ended up being much more widespread around 1620, as soon as coke was presented as the to reduce agent. Coke is a type of carbon created by heating coal in the absence of wait to eliminate impurities.

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The overall reaction because that the manufacturing of iron in a blast heating system is together follows:

The actual reductant is CO, i beg your pardon reduces Fe2O3 to offer Fe(l) and also CO2(g) (Equation ( ef23.2.3)); the CO2 is then reduced back to CO by reaction through excess carbon. As the ore, lime, and coke drop right into the furnace (Figure (PageIndex1)), any kind of silicate mineral in the ore react with the lime to produce a low-melting mixture that calcium silicates referred to as slag, i beg your pardon floats on height of the molten iron. Molten iron is then permitted to run out the bottom that the furnace, leaving the slag behind. Originally, the stole was built up in pools dubbed pigs, i beg your pardon is the beginning of the name pig iron.

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Figure (PageIndex1): A Blast furnace for convert Iron Oxides come Iron Metal. (a) The heating system is charged with alternative layers of iron ore (largely Fe2O3) and a mixture that coke (C) and also limestone (CaCO3). Blasting hot air right into the mixture from the bottom reasons it come ignite, creating CO and raising the temperature that the lower part of the blast heating system to around 2000°C. Together the CO the is formed initially rises, it reduces Fe2O3 to type CO2 and also elemental iron, which absorbs heat and also melts as it drops into the hottest part of the furnace. Decomposition the CaCO3 in ~ high temperatures produces CaO (lime) and additional CO2, which reacts with excess coke to kind more CO. (b) This blast furnace in Magnitogorsk, Russia, was the largest in the people when it was built in 1931.

The an initial step in the metallurgy of iron is usually roasting the ore (heating the ore in air) to eliminate water, decomposing carbonates into oxides, and also converting sulfides right into oxides. The oxides room then diminished in a blast heater that is 80–100 feet high and around 25 feet in diameter (Figure (PageIndex2)) in i m sorry the roasted ore, coke, and also limestone (impure CaCO3) are presented continuously right into the top. Molten iron and slag room withdrawn in ~ the bottom. The whole stock in a heating system may weigh numerous hundred tons.

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figure (PageIndex2):Within a blast furnace, various reactions occur in various temperature zones. Carbon monoxide is generated in the hot bottom regions and rises upward to alleviate the iron oxides come pure iron through a series of reactions that take place in the upper regions.

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Near the bottom that a heating system are nozzles v which preheated wait is blown right into the furnace. As soon as the waiting enters, the coke in the an ar of the nozzles is oxidized come carbon dioxide v the liberation the a good deal of heat. The warm carbon dioxide overcome upward v the overlying layer of white-hot coke, whereby it is lessened to carbon monoxide:

The carbon monoxide serves together the reducing certified dealer in the upper regions of the furnace. The individual reactions are shown in figure (PageIndex2). The iron oxides are lessened in the upper region of the furnace. In the center region, limestone (calcium carbonate) decomposes, and also the result calcium oxide combines through silica and also silicates in the ore to type slag. The slag is mostly calcium silicate and contains most of the commercially unimportant components of the ore:

Just listed below the middle of the furnace, the temperature is high enough to melt both the iron and also the slag. They collection in layers in ~ the bottom of the furnace; the less dense slag floats ~ above the iron and protects it from oxidation. Several times a day, the slag and also molten iron space withdrawn from the furnace. The iron is moved to spreading machines or come a steelmaking tree (Figure (PageIndex3)).

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number (PageIndex3):Molten stole is displayed being actors as steel. (credit: Clint Budd)