What were the main ingredients to make iron and eventually steel?

1 Answer
anor277
Jul 5, 2017

Well you need #"ferric oxide"#, and some #"coke"#, and a big furnace........

Explanation:

#Fe_2O_3(g) + 3CO(g) stackrel(Delta)rarr2Fe+3CO_2(g)#

Steel production is a big, and very capital intensive business. Quantitiies of ferric oxide, and carbon monoxide and heated in a so-called #"blast furnace"#. When I was much younger I was taken to see some of these, and you are very impressed by the scale and the output of these operations. Given the blast furnace, the main ingredients are (i) #"ferric oxide"#; and (ii) #"coke"#, which can be oxidized up to give #CO#, which effects the reduction of the iron ore to iron, and maybe later steel.

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