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Manufacture of Iron.
Iron
from the blast furnace contains about
5% carbon
which comes from the coke in the furnace.
It is cast into moulds called pigs
and the iron is called cast iron or
pig iron.
Molten scrap
iron and molten scrap steel
are mixed with molten iron from the blast
furnace in a converter.
This is the stage when scrap iron and
steel are recycled.
Carbon is removed from the mixture by bubbling
pure oxygen through it.
The oxygen reacts with the
carbon to form carbon dioxide.
Other non-metals in the mixture
react with the oxygen to form acidic oxides.
Calcium carbonate is then added to remove the acidic
oxides.
These reactions produce pure iron which is
called wrought
iron.
The large
majority of iron from the
blast furnace
is made into steel for construction,
steel contains 0·1% to
1·5%
carbon - see alloys.
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