Dated: 16/10/2017

(Assignment No. 03)

Student Name: M. Umair Mumtaz

Registration No: 10627

Degree Program: Avionics

Batch No.: 03

Submitted to: Prof. Bilal Ahmed

Institute of Space Technology

Islamabad-Pakistan
 Working of Blast Furnace
Diagram:
What is Blast Furnace??
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical
furnace used for smelting to produce industrial
metals and its alloys, generally iron, but also
others such as lead or copper.

History:

Blast furnaces existed in China from about 1st

century AD and in the West from the High
Middle Ages. They spread from the region
around Namur in Wallonia (Belgium) in the late
15th century, being introduced to England in
1491. The fuel used in these was invariably
charcoal. The successful substitution of coke for
charcoal is widely attributed to Abraham Darby
in 1709. The efficiency of the process was
further enhanced by the practice of preheating
the combustion air (hot blast), patented by
James Beaumont Neilson in 1828.

Parts of Blast furnace:

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

Process:

Industrial iron production starts with iron ores,

principally hematite, which has a nominal
formula Fe2O3, and magnetite, with the formula
Fe3O4. These ores are reduced to the metal in a
carbothermic reaction, i.e. by treatment with
carbon. The conversion is typically conducted in
a blast furnace at temperatures of about 2000
°C. Carbon is provided in the form of coke. The
process also contains a flux such as limestone,
which is used to remove silicaceous minerals in
the ore, which would otherwise clog the
furnace. The coke and limestone are fed into the
top of the furnace, while a massive blast of air
heated to 900 °C, about 4 tons per ton of iron is
forced into the furnace at the bottom.
In the furnace, the coke reacts with oxygen in
the air blast to produce carbon monoxide:

2 C + O2 → 2 CO
The carbon monoxide reduces the iron ore (in
the chemical equation below, hematite) to
molten iron, becoming carbon dioxide in the
process:
Fe2O3 + 3 CO → 2 Fe + 3 CO2

Some iron in the high-temperature lower region

of the furnace reacts directly with the coke:

2 Fe2O3 + 3 C → 4 Fe + 3 CO2

The flux present to melt impurities in the ore is

principally limestone (calcium carbonate) and
dolomite (calcium-magnesium carbonate). Other
specialized fluxes are used depending on the
details of the ore. In the heat of the furnace the
limestone flux decomposes to calcium oxide
(also known as quicklime):

CaCO3 → CaO + CO2

Then calcium oxide combines with silicon
dioxide to form a liquid slag.

CaO + SiO2 → CaSiO3

The slag melts in the heat of the furnace. In the

bottom of the furnace, the molten slag floats on
top of the denser molten iron, and apertures in
the side of the furnace are opened to run off the
iron and the slag separately. The iron, once
cooled, is called pig iron, while the slag can be
used as a material in road construction or to
improve mineral-poor soils for agriculture.

Real Photos of Blust furnace: