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EXTRACTION OF IRON

The first really useful metallic alloy to be discovered was bronze in the Bronze Age. Bronze is not an element (like gold and silver) but an alloy (metal mixture) of copper and tin. Bronze was used extensively for tools and weapons. After the Bronze Age came the Iron Age. People discovered that a high temperature coal fire could be used for the extraction of iron from iron ore. The discovery of electricity at the beginning of the nineteenth century allowed the extraction of the more reactive metals. Aluminum has been extracted on a large scale since about 1870. Minerals: A solid element or compound which occurs naturally in the Earth's crust is called a mineral. Ore: A mineral from which metals can be extracted profitably is called a metal ore. Profitable extraction means that the cost of getting the metal out of the ore is sufficiently less than the amount of money made by selling the metal. So all ores are minerals but all minerals are not ores. The most common metal ores are oxides and sulfides. Metals are obtained from their ores by reduction. Metal ore deposits are a finite resource (there are only a certain amount of them) and non-renewable (once used, they are gone and will not be replaced). Many metals are obtained today from recycling (melting and refining) scrap metals. Native Metals: Gold and platinum occur in the Earth as native metal, which means that they are found as the element, not the compound, and so do not need to be reduced. Silver and copper may also be found as native metal. Occurrence of Iron: Iron is very reactive and is found in nature in form of its oxides, carbonates and sulfates. The main ores are: i) ii) iii) Hematite (Fe2 O3) Magnetite (Fe3O4) Iron Pyrites (FeS2)

The main iron ore is hematite (iron (III) oxide - Fe2O3). The iron ore contains impurities, mainly silica (silicon dioxide). Since iron is below carbon in the reactivity series, iron in the ore is reduced to iron metal by heating with carbon (coke).

Steps of Extraction
Concentration: The ore is crushed in crushers and is broken to small pieces. It is concentrated with gravity separation process in which it is washed with water to remove clay, sand, etc. Calcination: The ore is then heated in absence of air (calcite). This result in decomposition of carbonates into oxides and then ferrous oxide is converted into Ferric Oxide. FeCO 3= FeO+ CO2

4FeO +O2= 2 Fe2O3 The concentrated ore is mixed with calculated quantity of coke, limestone and the mixture is put in the Blast Furnace from top.

BLAST FURNACE: It is a tall cylindrical furnace made of steel. It is lined inside with fire bricks. It is
narrow at the top and has an arrangement for the introduction of ore and outlet for waste gases. Heated with help of Hot Gases. Chemical Reactions: Following chemical reactions take place in a blast furnace: i) Formation of carbon monoxide: Near the bottom of the furnace, coke burns in air to form carbon dioxide and a lot of heat is produced. We get a temperature of about 1875 k. this CO2 further reacts with more coke and is reduced to CO. CO2 heat c co 2 2 co ii) Reduction of hematite to Iron: In the upper part of the furnace, the temperature is 975K to 1075K. Here hematite is reduced to Iron by CO. This molten Iron is collected at the bottom of the furnace. Functions of Limestone: 1. It acts as flux to remove sand from hematite in form of liquid Slag. In the middle of the furnace, the temperature is about 1075-1275 K. Here Limestone decomposes to produce calcium oxide (CaO) and CO2. This CaO reacts with reacts with silica (sand) present in the ore to form slag (CaSiO3). CaCO3 = CaO + CO2 CaO + SiO2 = CaSiO3 2. Slag is lighter than molten iron so it floats over molten iron and protects it from oxidizing back into its oxides. Commercial Forms of Iron: There are three major commercial forms of Iron. They differ in their carbon content. 1. Cast Iron (or Pig Iron): It contains 2-5% Carbon along with traces of other impurities like Sulfur, Phosphorus, and Manganese etc. 2. Wrought Iron: It is the purest form of Iron and contains carbon to the extent of 0.25% 3. Steel: It contains 0.5 to 1.5 % of carbon along with varying amount of other elements

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