DATE: 16-OCTOBER-2017

ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
ASSIGNMENT # 3

SUBMITTED TO:
SIR BILAL AHMED
SUBMITTED BY:
MUHAMMAD WAMIQ SOHAIL
REGISTRATION #:
4417
DEPARTMENT:
BE-AVIONICS
SECTION:
AVE-03

INSTITITE OF SPACE TECNOLOGY,

ISLAMABAD.
Q: Explain the production of Iron in a blast furnace.
ANS:
INTRODUCTION
BLAST FURNACE:
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce
industrial metals and their alloys, generally iron, which is to be discussed below, as
well as lead and copper.
PRODUCTION OF IRON
INITIAL EXPOSURE:
The purpose of a blast furnace is to chemically reduce and physically convert the
iron oxides into liquid iron form which is known as “hot metal”. Iron Ore is
smelted in the blast furnace in order to remove any unwanted impurities such as
rocks, clay and sand, and also to separate the iron remains rom the unwanted
Oxygen. The result of this process is that we get 95% pure iron. The remaining
impurities are other unwanted metals that can be removed later if required
necessary.
PRODUCTION:
The raw materials used in this process are: -
 Iron Ore
 Coke
 Limestone
The blast furnace is 100 ft. high and is made of steel. It is a huge, steel stack lined
with refractory brick, where iron ore, coke and limestone are dumped on top and
pre-heated air is blown into the bottom. High-Temperature air (around 2000`F) at
high pressure (30-60 psi) is blown into the bottom of the furnace. The raw
materials require around 6-8 hours to descend to the bottom of the furnace where
they become the final product which is liquid slag and liquid iron. During this
process, Oxygen is continuously changed to vapors to remove it from the iron
oxides. The blast furnace is a continuous process. It runs 4 - 10 years with little
intervals and gives around 3,000 – 10,000 tons of hot molten iron each day.
First of all, Iron oxides enters the furnace in the form of ores (Hematite or
Magnetite) which have around 50 – 70% iron content in them. These ores are
crushed and ground to fine powder so waste material can be removed. Iron then
forms pellets and sinters. These three are smelted and turned to liquid iron with
their impurities going to the liquid slag.
The coke acts both as a source of energy and means of stripping oxygen from the
iron. The strong pieces of coke with high energy value provide heat and gases
which are required to reduce and melt the iron ore, pellets and sinters.
Final raw product used is the limestone. It is firstly crushed into 0.5 – 1.5 inches to
become blast furnace flux. Flux materials, mainly limestone, is added to ensure
that impurities in charge materials form a molten, fluid slag at the furnace
operating temperature.
Another product of iron making are the hot dirty gases. These gases exit the blast
furnace from these top and proceed through gas cleaning equipment where
particular matter is removed and the gas is cooled.
END PROCESS:
The molten iron and slag are removed from the furnace in the cast house. The
molten iron and slag flow into a refractory-lined trough where they are separated.
The iron is directed to refractory-line hot metal cars for transfer to the steelmaking
facility. Slag is usually directed to slag pits where it solidifies and is removed by
front end loaders to trucks.

THE END