Production of Iron

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Outline
Smelting operation
Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Blast furnace charge Iron Ores Flux Metallurgical Coke

Charging Mechanism in Blast Furnace

Chemical Reactions in Blast Furnace Coke Manufacturing & its Quality Formation and tapping of slag Pig Iron- Properties & uses

General view of Blast Furnace plant Sketch of Blast Furnace Construction and working of Blast Furnace

Blast Furnace Charge

BF charge consists of the following:
Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Iron ore ; iron oxide in lump or sinter form

Fuel ; coke Flux ; limestone

In addition Hot air is admitted through the tuyeres

Iron Ores
The most important variety of iron ore are:
Nomenclature Composition Fe %age Magnetite (Black oxide) Fe3O4 72.4 Location
Makarwal, Swabi, Chitral (PAK), Land of midnight sun (Sweden), Pennsylvania (USA), Siberia (Russia)

Hematite (red, Fe2O3 brown & black)

Limonite & other hydroxide types of ores Siderite Iron Pyrite (yellow) 2Fe2O3 . H2O to Fe2O3 . 3H2O FeCO3 FeS

40-65

Kala bagh, Chnari, Chaghi, Chalghazi (PAK), Lake superior, Utah (USA), Lorraine (France), Amazon basin (Brazil)
Not found in PAK, Britains East coast

20-55

Low in Fe 42

Hazara, Mardan (PAK), South Wales, Staffordshire & west York Mardan, Chitral (PAK)

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Flux
Flux is a material, which is added to the contents of a Blast furnace or a Cupola for the purpose of purging the metal of impurities, and of rendering the slag more liquid. The flux most commonly used in iron and steel furnaces is limestone, which is charged in the proper proportions with the iron ore and fuel.

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Metallurgical Coke
Coke is a solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of lowash, low-sulfur, high coking property bituminous coal.

The volatile constituents of the coal including

water, coal-gas, and coal-tar are driven off by baking in an airless oven at temperatures as high 1000 C.

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Metallurgical Coke
Metallurgical coke is produced by carbonization of coal at high temperatures to produce a macroporous carbon material of high strength and relatively large lump size.
Notes: Metallurgical cokes must have a high strength to support heavy loads in the blast furnace without disintegration.

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Coke Manufacturing Process

Bituminous coal is pulverized by ball mill into fine powder.
Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Fine coal is heated in coke oven battery at 700 900C in absence of air. This process is called Carbonization.

After soaking at this temperature for about 78 hrs., it is allowed to cool in the furnace.
Due to coking property of bituminous coal powdered coal converts into lump size and becomes very hard and highly porous. After cooling, the coke produced is crushed into desired size.

Quality Testing of Coke

Following parameters are determined in the testing laboratory for justifying the quality of the coke. Strength of the coke, fixed Carbon (88-92%), sulphur content and

ash content

By-products like tar may also be collected during carbonization process.

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General view of Blast Furnace plant

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Sketch of Blast Furnace Plant

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Sketch of Blast Furnace

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Construction and working of Blast Furnace

Blast furnace consists of a vertical steel shell ~100 ft high & ~ 21 ft dia and lined with refractory material. It has a charging arrangement (Bell & Cone) at the top. Raw material is charged by a skip car through this charging mechanism into the blast furnace. It has a means of running off Pig iron & Slag at the bottom. Air is blown in near the bottom of the furnace. This forced draught increases the speed of combustion & maintains the necessary high temperature. Cooling water is circulated around the Bosh area in order to protect the furnace from high temp.
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Various zones in Blast Furnace

Charging Mechanism in Blast Furnace

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Smelting operation
Smelting consists of two operations:
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a- Chemical reduction of iron from its oxides by CO, which is formed by the combustion of C in the coke with the O2 of the air blast admitted through the tuyeres near the base.
b- The liquefaction of the gangue by means of flux (limestone) to form a fusible slag which will run from the furnace.

Smelting operation
During the production of pig iron (smelting
Engineering Materials Lecture 04

operation) large amount of gases are evolved , which contain about 30% CO having considerable calorific value.

The exit gases are collected, led through downcomer pipe to a cleaning chamber and electrostatic dust precipitator & then used as fuel gas in Cowper Stoves in order to pre-heat the air blast to the furnace.

Chemical Reactions in Blast Furnace

The air, which is blown at the bottom of the furnace causes partial combustion of the coke:

2C + O2 = 2CO + Heat

CO, which is powerful reducing agent, rises through the charge, & chemically reduces the iron oxide :-

Fe2O3 + 3CO = 2Fe +3CO2

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

 Reduction sequence of iron oxide is as Fe2O3 Fe2O3 Fe3O4 Fe3O4 FeO Fe,
Fe,
when temp is > 570 C when temp is < 570 C
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The equation # 2 takes place in the upper part of the furnace, where the temp is too low to melt the iron formed. The iron remains as a spongy mass until it moves down into the lower part of the furnace, where it melts & runs down over the hot coke, dissolving C, S, Mn, P & Si as it goes.

SLAG: The slag is a liquid mixture of ash, flux, and other impurities. At the time of the reduction of iron oxide, the gangue, which is composed of silica, combines with lime to produce slag as :SiO2 + 2CaO = 2CaO.SiO2
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Formation and tapping of Slag

(Calcium silicate slag)

SLAG Calcium silicate slag has much lower melting point than silica and can run from the furnace quite easily. The furnace is tapped at regular intervals & the pig iron is run either into large ladles for transference, while still molten, to steel making plant, or alternatively, cast into pigs for subsequent use in the cupola or open hearth furnace.

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Slag(Continue)

Limestone has an other function

the removal of sulphur.
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This entails having an excess of lime in the slag and is often impracticable with low grade ores, since they contain so much silica, which must be neutralized first. In British practice, the sulphur is removed at a later stage by adding soda-ash to molten pig iron as it runs from the blast furnace into the ladle:FeS + Na2CO3 =
Soda ash

FeO +

Na2S
joins the slag

CO2

(Iron sulphide

Tapping of Slag

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Pig Iron - Properties & uses

Definition:- It is a high-carbon iron made by reduction of iron ore in the blast furnace.

Metallic iron, which is a product of reduction of iron ore, appears in the lower part of stack & in the bosh. It contains ~ 1 % C and found to in spongy form. As this material sinks down in the B.F. and is heated further, iron dissolves C in increasing quantities. This reduces the melting temp & it melts and draws off to the hearth in the form of drops.

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Pig Iron

(Continue)

Total amount of C in the pig iron is usually between 3 4% & is present either
as compound, iron carbide (Fe3C) or as un-combined carbon in the form of graphite.

Pig iron low in S & high in P may be used in the manufacture of acid steel & high-duty iron castings.

Engineering Materials Lecture 04

Pig iron is really a complex alloy. In addition to Fe, it contains up to 10 % of other elements, mainly, C, Mn, Si, S & P.

Thanks

Blast furnace diagram

1. Hot blast from Cowper stoves 2. Melting zone (bosh) 3. Reduction zone of ferrous oxide (barrel) 4. Reduction zone of ferric oxide (stack) 5. Pre-heating zone (throat) 6. Feed of ore, limestone, and coke 7. Exhaust gases 8. Column of ore, coke and limestone 9. Removal of slag 10. Tapping of molten
pig iron 11. Collection of waste gases

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