How Steel is made from Iron ore?
Steel is one of the most important materials in our world, used in everything from buildings and bridges to cars and appliances ever wondered how it is extracted from the earth and how to saperate from the crust of the earth?
The complete process of steel making
The Raw Ingredients : Look at these blasts. It all starts with the blasts like these. Once you Identify the sites for the Iron Ores. All the big rocks are broken in to small rocks using controlled explosions. All these iron is not in the normal form. With years of staying in the atmosphere and with the oxygen available in the environment they are in the form of ferrous oxides known as ferretite and magnetite(Fe203 & Fe304)
These rocks are further processes on site using Crushers. Crushers are the machines that used to crush all these rocks and turn them into smaller rocks. These smaller rocks are further screened using different methods and magnetics belts in different sizes. This process will filter some of the impurities.
The Transport of Rocks: After this All the broken rocks are picked up and transported using big trucks / train tracks further processing sites. This is where the primary steel making happens.
What is Coke and why do we add it? It is Nothing but pure carbon, When you burn coal at 1200 degree Celsius without the presence of oxygen you get coke. Now , This coke is very important because when burnt with iron ore it's carbon reacts with the oxygen in the Ferrous oxide and creates carbon monoxides and carbon dioxides.
Fe2O3 + 3CO → 2Fe + 3CO
What is Lime stone and why do we add it ? Lime stone is a similar material which can be found in their mines and they are rich in calcium. Lime stones are mainly found in the sea and river stones. The calcium carbonate in the limestone reacts with the silicon dioxide which is inside iron ores to form calcium silicate (also known as slag).
CaCO3(s) → CaO(s) + CO2(g)
CaO(s) + SiO2(l) → CaSiO3(s)
How it all reacts inside blast furnace?
Coke and iron ore are pored into the blast furnace from the top.
same time hot air is blowen into the furnace. this starts the chemical reactions as I mentioned earlier and produces Carbon monoxide and dioxide gases.
So this iron is still with the silica. and because if heavy ness of the atom it will start going down towards the bottom of the furnace. thats where it reacts with limestone and creates slug for the puirity of iron. This slug is then saperated using a separate hole / pipe for slug and Iron is saperated throgue a continuous molten flow.
This moltan steel is now known as the Pog iron . and transported for further steel making processes.
Source:
https://www.angloamerican.com/our-stories/innovation-and-technology/the-iron-age
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z6gqmsg/revision/3
https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/about/making-steel/raw-materials-coking-plant#:~:text=To%20make%20steel%20in%20a,only%20the%20pure%20iron%20behind.
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