Extraction of Iron

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As History Tells Us
Stone Age and Bronze Age: Humans have used metals for thousands of years. Gold and silver, found as native metal, were used as jewellery. These metals were known in the Stone Age but gold and silver are too soft to be used as tools. 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.

As History Tells Us
Iron Age: 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. Aluminium has been extracted on a large scale since about 1870.

Some Terms Lets Have a Look

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 sulphides. Metals are obtained from their ores by reduction.

Be Aware!!
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 sulphates. The main ores are: i) Haematite (Fe2O3) ii) Magnetite (Fe3O4) iii) Iron Pyrites (FeS2) o The main iron ore is Haematite (iron (III) oxide Fe2O3). o The iron ore contains impurities, mainly silica (silicon dioxide). o Since iron is below carbon in the reactivity series, iron in the ore is reduced to iron metal by heating with carbon (coke).

Extraction of Iron
Step1: 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.

Steps of Extraction
Step1: Concentration

Step2: Calcination The ore is then heated in absence of air (calcined). This results in decomposition of carbonates into oxides and then ferrous oxide is converted into Ferric Oxide.

FeCO3 FeO CO 2 4FeO O2 2Fe2CO3

Steps of Extraction
Step1: Concentration Step2: Calcination

Step3: Smelting 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.

C O2 CO2 Heat C CO2 2CO

Chemical Reactions
ii) Reduction of Haematite to Iron: In the upper part of the furnace, the temperature is between 975K to 1075K. Here Haematite is reduced to Iron by CO. This molten Iron is collected at the bottom of the furnace.

Fe 2 O3 3CO 2Fe 3CO 2

Functions of Limestone
It acts as flux to remove sand from Haematite 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).
1.

CaCO3 heat CaO CO 2 CaO SiO 2 CaSiO 3

Slag is lighter than molten iron so it floats over molten iron and protects it from oxidising back into its oxides.
2.

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 Sulphur, Phosphorus, 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.

Testing Zone..
Match the following:
a) Haematite b) Calcination c) Smelting a) Extraction of Iron b) Ore of Iron c) CaSiO3

d) Slag
e) Lime Stone

d) Acts as Flux
e) Type of Iron f) Heating in absence of air.

Testing Zone..
Match the following:
a) Haematite b) Calcination c) Smelting a) Extraction of Iron b) Ore of Iron c) CaSiO3

d) Slag
e) Lime Stone

d) Acts as Flux
e) Type of Iron f) Heating in absence of air.

Testing Zone..
Match the following:
a) Haematite b) Calcination c) Smelting a) Extraction of Iron b) Ore of Iron c) CaSiO3

d) Slag
e) Lime Stone

d) Acts as Flux
e) Type of Iron f) Heating in absence of air.

Testing Zone..
Match the following:
a) Haematite b) Calcination c) Smelting a) Extraction of Iron b) Ore of Iron c) CaSiO3

d) Slag
e) Lime Stone

d) Acts as Flux
e) Type of Iron f) Heating in absence of air.

Testing Zone..
Match the following:
a) Haematite b) Calcination c) Smelting a) Extraction of Iron b) Ore of Iron c) CaSiO3

d) Slag
e) Lime Stone

d) Acts as Flux
e) Type of Iron f) Heating in absence of air.

Testing Zone..
Match the following:
a) Haematite b) Calcination c) Smelting a) Extraction of Iron b) Ore of Iron c) CaSiO3

d) Slag
e) Lime Stone

d) Acts as Flux
e) Type of Iron f) Heating in absence of air.

Testing Zone..
Mark True of False

1. Metals can be extracted profitably from ores.

2. All minerals are ores.

3. Chief ore of Iron is Iron Pyrites. 4. Iron is reduced with the help of Coke. 5. Slag is formed by reaction between CaCO3 and SiO2

Testing Zone..
Mark True of False

1. Metals can be extracted profitably from ores. (True)

2. All minerals are ores. (False)

3. Chief ore of Iron is Iron Pyrites. (False) 4. Iron is reduced with the help of Coke. (True) 5. Slag is formed by reaction between CaCO3 and SiO2.
(False)

Testing Zone..
Choose the right Answer out of
The given choices: Ques1: The actual reducing agent in Blast Furnace is:

A) Coke
B) Carbon Dioxide C) Carbon Monoxide D) Iron

Testing Zone..
Choose the right Answer out of
The given choices: Ques1: The actual reducing agent in Blast Furnace is:

A) Coke
B) Carbon Dioxide C) Carbon Monoxide D) Iron

Testing Zone..
Choose the right Answer out of
The given choices: Ques2: The formula for Haematite is:

A) FeO
B) FeO2 C) Fe2O3 D) Fe3O4

Testing Zone..
Choose the right Answer out of
The given choices: Ques2: The formula for Haematite is:

A) FeO
B) FeO2 C) Fe2O3 D) Fe3O4

Testing Zone..
Choose the right Answer out of
The given choices: Ques3: Which is the purest form of Iron?

A) Cast Iron
B) Wrought Iron C) Pig Iron D) Steel

Testing Zone..
Choose the right Answer out of
The given choices: Ques3: Which is the purest form of Iron?

A) Cast Iron
B) Wrought Iron C) Pig Iron D) Steel

Do it Yourself
Q 1: Name three ores of Iron
Q 2: Write the chemical reactions taking place in a blast furnace during extraction of Iron Q3: What are three major types of Iron. How do they differ from each other? Q4: Draw a neat labelled diagram of Blast Furnace.

Thank you

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