2. General Issue
About Steel
• Steel has been called the world’s
most useful and inexpensive metal.
• In recent decades, steel
manufacturers have been forced to
take a much closer look at what
their processes have been doing to
the fragile environment around
them.
3. What is Steel Used For
The structure of the pyramid of the Louvre, canned food, oil platforms, catalytic
converters, paper clips, mounts for electronic chips are all made of steel.
1. In the construction of bridges or buildings
2. In the Automobile sector
3. In Health
4. In Energy
5. In communication
7. Steel Making Plant
Steel is stronger than pure iron
due to the substitution of carbon
atoms in the molecular lattice.
Alloys are modified for their
specific requirements(Oxtoby)
8. What is Blast
Furnace
• The purpose of the blast furnace is to reduce and
convert iron oxides into liquid iron called “Hot
Metal”.
• The Blast furnace is a huge, steel stack lined with
refractory brick.
• Iron ore, coke and limestone are put into the top,
and preheated air is blown into the bottom.
9. Why does Iron have to be extracted in
a Blast Furnace?
• Iron can be extracted by the Blast furnace because it can be displaced by carbon.
• This is more efficient method than Electrolysis because it is more cost effective.
10. The Method
Three substance are needed to enable to extraction of iron from its ore. The combined mixture
is called the: Iron ore, haematite-often contains sand with iron oxide,Fe2O3.
Limestone(calcium carbonate)
Coke-Mainly carbon
The is placed a giant chimney called the blast furnace is around 30 meters high and lined with
fire proof bricks. Hot air is blasted through the bottom.
Both the slag and iron are drained from the bottom of the furnace.
The slag is mainly used to build roads.
The iron whilst molten is poured into moulds and left to solidify- this is called cast iron and is
used to make railings and storage tanks.
The rest of the iron is used to make steel.
11. Electric Arc
Furnace
The Furnace are typically charged with
scrap steel. They use high power
electric arcs to melt the scrap. They also
convert direct reduced iron into liquid
steel, reaching the same quality that
can be achieved in an integrated steel
plant. The electric arc furnace creates
valuable slag as a by-product, just as
the blast furnace does. Just as in the
basic oxygen furnace, the melt is then
further treated to adjust its chemical
composition
