Metals and Ores sourav ch.

Cep-17th

 Earth is composed of 112 elements mainly. They are found in atmosphere and lithosphere. lithosphere constitutes the main source of most of the elements. The elements have been broadly divided into metals and non-metals on the basis of their physical and chemical properties

Occurrence of metals
Metals and their compounds are found in earth as natural elements known as minerals. Metals occur in nature as two kinds of state mainly: 1. In the Free State: Element which have low chemical reactivity generally occur native or free or metallic state. e.g. Au, Pt noble gas etc. Such metals are not acted upon by air or water. 2. In the Combined State : Element which are chemically reactive, generally occur in the combined form as compounds such as oxides, carbonates, sulphides, sulphates, silicates, chlorides, nitrates, phosphates etc.

ORE
The mineral from which the metal is conveniently and economically extracted is called an ore. All the ores are minerals but all minerals cannot be ores. Ores may be divided into four groups, (1) Metallic core (siderophile) of the earth crust contains (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ru, Rb, Pd, Ag, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au). Entire composition of metals in earth crust may be given as, Al (8.3%); Ca(3.6%); Na (2.8%); K (2.6%); Mg (2.1%); Ti (0.4%); Mn (0.1%); Fe (5.1%) other metals (0.1%). (i) Native ores : These ores contain metals in free state, e.g., silver, gold, platinum, mercury, copper, etc. These are found usually associated with rock or alluvial materials like clay, sand, etc. sometimes lumps of pure metals are also found. These are termed nuggets. Iron is found in free state as meteroites which also have 20 to 30% nickel. (ii) Sulphurised and arsenical ores : These ores consist of sulphides and arsenides in simple and complex forms of metals. Important ores of this group are

ORE PREPARATION
Ores straight from the mine are seldom directly suited for metal extraction. Quite often their metal content is too low for processing in the furnace, or they may be composed of minerals containing different metals requiring different kinds of metallurgical treatment. For these reasons, must ores have to undergo variety of preparatory processes

 Main steps for the preparation of ore are given below: 1) Preliminary treatment to concentrate ore:

A key objective in the metallurgical treatment of any ore is the separation of ore minerals from gangue(In mining, gangue is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit.) minerals within the rock.

 The process start with a)comminution (crushing and grinding); b) sizing (by screening); c)classifying (e.g., the grading of finely divided material by rates of settling); d)separation (e.g., by magnetism, electrical conductivity, specific gravity, etc.). The degree of comminution (size reduction) to be applied will depend on the size of the ore lumps and on the requirements of the subsequent treatment to be applied. Sizing and classifying i.e., grading the comminuted material according to particle size are important operations in ore dressing

2) Further purification and reduction to obtain the metal in its elementary state: a)Hydrometallurgy leaching : Metal is refined from ore using aqueous reactions

b)Pyrometallurgy roasting, smelting: using high temperatures to obtain the free metal. c)Electrometallurgy.
3) Final purification and refining of the metal.

Steel and Wrought Iron

Steel: Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon (varying upto 2%) Other alloying elements sometimes used are manganese,chromium,vanadium,tungsten. Varying the amount of alloying elements we can controls qualities such as the hardness,ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel.

 Wrought Iron : Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to steel, and has fibrous inclusions, known as slag. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile and easily welded. Wrought iron is no longer produced commercially, however, because it can be effectively replaced in nearly all applications by low-carbon steel, which is less expensive to produce and is typically of more uniform quality than wrought iron

Production of Steel
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS : Iron ore is converted to steel via two main steps. The first involves the production of molten iron and the second is that of actual steel manufacture.

 Step 1 - The production of molten iron: The Primary Concentrate is mixed with limestone and coal and heated. The iron oxides are reduced in the solid state to metallic iron, which then melts, and the impurities are removed either as slag or gas. The flow diagram for this process is shown in Figure 1.

 The multi-hearth furnaces : There are four multi-hearth furnaces. The furnaces preheat the materials fed into the rotary kiln and reduce the amount of volatile matter present in the coal from about 44% to about 9%. There are 12 hearths in each furnace .The temperature of furnaces is 490C to 620C. The total residence time in the multi-hearth furnace is 30 - 40 minutes. The waste gas from the multi-hearth furnace contains water vapour and other volatile compounds from the coal (e.g. carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other combustion products) as well as suspended coal and primary concentrate dust particles. These solids are removed and returned to the furnace

The rotary kilns : There are four rotary kilns. Here about 80% of the iron of the primary concentrate is reduced to metallic iron over period of 12 hour. The preheated coal char and primary concentrate from the furnaces is mixed with limestone and fed into the kiln. In the first third of the kiln, known as the pre-heating zone, the feed from the multi-hearth furnace is further heated to 900 C- 1000C as a result of the combustion of remaining volatile matter of coal.

The last two-thirds of the kiln is known as the reduction zone, and here the solid iron oxides are reduced to metallic iron. In this region the air reacts with the carbon from the coal to produce carbon dioxide and heat: C + O2 CO2 H= -393 kJ mol The carbon dioxide then reacts with more carbon to produce carbon monoxide, the principal reductant, in an exothermic reaction which then reduce iron oxide to iron: C + CO2 2CO H= +171 kJ mol Fe3O4+ 4CO 3Fe + 4CO2 H= -10 kJ mol

 The melters : The hot reduced primary concentrate from the kilns is fed into two melters. The lime reacts predominantly with sulfur from the coal. The temperature in the melters rises to 1500C, and this causes the reduced primary concentrate to melt and form two layers. The lower layer is of molten iron.

Step 2 - Steel making

 Vanadium recovery : Before conversion into steel, vanadium is recovered from the molten iron. This is done firstly because vanadium rich slag produced (15% vanadium as V2O5) has a high value and secondly because a high vanadium content can make the steel too hard.

The Klockner Oxygen Blown Maxhutte process : The KOBM steel making process involves oxidizing dissolved impurities by blowing oxygen through the molten metal. The oxygen oxidizes the elements other than iron (including any free carbon) to their oxides. In this way contaminants are removed as the oxides form a slag which floats on the surface of the molten metal. Powdered lime is blown to help slag formation and this particularly reduces the levels of sulfur and phosphorous by combining with their acidic oxides .now we get molten steel.

 Ladle treatment: The final stage of steel making is the ladle treatment. The bulk of the alloying elements are added in the furnace to adjust composition and, after blowing argon through the molten metal to ensure homogeneity , the temperature is measured and a sample removed for analysis after stirring. If the metal requires cooling, scrap steel is added. If the temperature is too low, aluminum is added and oxygen blown through. When all adjustments are complete argon is blown through once again to ensure mixing and the ladle taken to the continuous casting machine to shape the steel.

 Cement Steel : Steel produced from wrought iron by cementation, known as blister steel. In order to convert wrought iron into steel that is, increase the carbon contenta carburization process was used. Metal Iron are heated with charcoal in sealed clay pots that were placed in large bottle-shaped kilns holding about 10 to 14 tons of metal and about 2 tons of charcoal. When the kiln was heated, carbon from the charcoal diffused into the iron. In an attempt to achieve homogeneity, the initial product was removed from the kiln, forged, and again reheated with charcoal in the kiln. During the reheating process, carbon monoxide gas was formed internally at the nonmetallic inclusions

 crucible steel : A high-quality steel made by melting wrought iron, charcoal, and other additives in a crucible. It is formed by slowly heating and cooling pure iron and carbon (typically in the form of charcoal) in a crucible . It was used to produce sword blade ,knife etc.

Carbon Steel : Carbon steel is an alloy made up of mainly iron and carbon but still other elements do exists in this alloy as shown in table 2 below:

Out of these elements, Phosphorus, Sulphur and Silicon are considered as minor elements as they have some negative impacts on the steel. Effects of minor elements on steel: 1) Phosphorus: Phosphorus is an element, which affects primarily the ductility and the toughness of steel. It react with the iron to form iron phosphide (Fe3P) which has the speciality of being brittle. Hence, phosphorus renders steel less tough and ductile while it increases brittleness.

2)Sulphur: Sulphur is a trace element, which has a great tendency to segregate (that is to isolate itself in the structure). Trace amounts of sulfur in particular make the steel red-short(brittle at a red heat). Sulphur plays a great role also in the drop in weldability, impact toughness and ductility of steel. 3)Silicon: silicon has the tendency of making hot and cold workability and machinability less effective. It also affects the surface quality of the steel.

Wrought iron manufacturing process: The modern technique of making wrought iron uses molten iron from a Bessemer converter and molten slag, which is usually prepared by melting iron ore, mill scale, and sand in an open-hearth furnace. The molten slag is maintained in a ladle at a temperature several hundred degrees below the temperature of the molten iron. When the molten iron, which carries a large amount of gas in solution, is poured into the ladle containing the molten slag, the metal solidifies almost instantly, releasing the dissolved gas.

The force exerted by the gas shatters the metal into minute particles that are heavier than the slag and that accumulate in the bottom of the ladle, agglomerating into a spongy mass with impurities. After the slag has been poured off the top of the ladle, the ball of iron is removed and squeezed and rolled by subjecting the impure metal to intense heat and frequent stirring inside a furnace, and in the presence of oxidizing substances. This process frees the metal from some of its impurities, such as sulfur and carbon.