Pig iron and its manufacturing

Pig iron is the crude form of iron and is used as a raw material for the production of various
other ferrous metals, such as cast iron, wrought iron and steel. The pig iron is obtained by
smelting iron ores in a blast furnace.
The iron ores are found in various forms as shown below:
The metallic contents of these iron ores are given in the following table:
The haematite is widely used for the production of pig iron. Since pyrite contains only 30 to
40% iron, therefore it is not used for manufacturing pig iron.
The pig iron is obtained from the iron ores in the following steps:
1. Concentration. It is the process of removing the impurities like clay, sand etc. from the
iron ore by washing with water.
2. Calcination or roasting. It is the process of expelling moisture, carbon dioxide, sulphur
and arsenic from the iron ore by heating in shallow kilns.
3. Smelting. It is process of reducing the ore with carbon in the presence of a flux. The
smelting is carried out in a large tower called blast furnace.
The blast furnace is a chimney like structure made of heavy steel plates lined inside with
fire bricks to a thickness of 1.2 to 1.5 metres. It is about 30 metres high with a maximum
internal diameter of 9 meters as its widest cross-section. The portion of the furnace above its
widest cross-section is called stack. The top most portion of the stack is called throat through
which the charge is fed into the furnace. The charge of the blast furnace consists of calcined
ore (8 parts), coke (4 parts) and lime stone (1 part). The portion of the furnace, below its
widest cross-section is known as bosh or the burning zone (or zone of fusion). The bosh is
provided with holes for a number of water jacketed iron blowing pipes known as tuyers. The
tuyers are 12 to 15 in number and are connected to bustle pipe surrounding the furnace.
In the lower part of the blast furnace (called zone of fusion), the temperature is 1200 C to
1300 C. In the middle part of the blast furnace (called zone of absorption), the temperature is
800 C to 1000C. In the upper part of the blast furnace (called zone of reduction), the
temperature is 400 C to 700 C.
At the bottom of the blast furnace, the molten iron sinks down while above this floats the
fusible stage which protects the molten iron from oxidation. The molten iron thus produced is
known as pig iron. The slag from the blast furnace consists of calcium, aluminum and ferrous
silicates. It is used as a ballast for rail roads, mixed with tar for road making and in the
cement manufacture.
The pig iron from the blast furnace contains 90 to 92% of iron. The various other elements
present in pig iron are carbon (1 to 5%), silicon ( 1 to 2%), manganese (1 to 2%), sulphur and
phosphorus (1 to 2%).