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Steel and Iron Industry

By

Esperanzate, Paul Gabrielle


Magno, Jerome T.
Dulay, Ruby Ann P.
Gamueda, Yessa M.
Tavora, Monique D.
Villamar, Camille Mia D.

CHE 321 Chemical Process Industries


Engr. Jonalyn A. Kimpay,ChE

Esperanzate Magno Dulay Gamueda Tavora Villamar


Topics to be Steel and Iron Industry
Chemical Process Industries
discussed

What are steels and iron?

History of Steel and Iron Industry.

Types of Iron and Steel

Steel and Iron Manufacturing


Processes

Recycling

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Iron is the fourth most abundant element and makes up more than five percent of the earths
crust. Iron exists naturally in iron ore (sometimes called ironstone).

Iron has a strong affinity for oxygen, iron ore is an oxide of iron; it also contains varying
quantities of other elements such as silicon, sulfur, manganese, and phosphorus.
It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner
core.
Steel is a term given to alloys containing a high proportion of iron with some carbon.
Steel is by far the most important metal, in tonnage terms, in the modern world
A typical steel would have a density of about 7.7 g cm-3 and a melting point of about 1650o
C.
Steels are alloys of iron and carbon, widely used in construction and other applications
because of their high tensile strengths and low costs

A brief history of iron and steel


4000 BCE: Iron is first used for ornaments and decoration, probably in the Middle
East.
2500 BCE: Iron is used on a large scale for the first time by the Hittites, in a region
now occupied by Turkey and Syria.
1200 BCE: Wrought iron (similar to steel) is developed.
1000 BCE: Iron Age begins: iron is widely used for making tools and weapons in many
parts of the world.
200 BCE: Cast-iron objects are produced in China.
300BCE400CE: First steel furnaces used in Africa, India, and China.
5001000 CE: Blacksmiths make many important iron goods including weapons,
plows, and horseshoes.
700: An efficient iron-making furnace called the Catalan forge is developed in Spain.
12001500: Blast furnaces powered by waterwheels become popular.
1709: Abraham Darby first uses coke (a type of coal) to make pig iron in
Coalbrookdale in Shropshire in England's Midlands. His grandson, Abraham Darby III,
uses cast iron to make a famous iron bridge at a place now called "Ironbridge," widely
considered the heart of the English Industrial Revolution.
1856: Henry Bessemer announces his invention of the Bessemer converter, a basic
oxygen furnace that can convert iron to steel in very large, commercial quantities.
1861: The brothers William and Frederick Siemens develop the open-hearth furnace
1879: William Siemens invents the electric furnace.
1954: Modern basic oxygen process is invented.

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I. Iron is the second most common metal in Earth's crust but because it reacts so readily with
oxygen it's never mined in its pure form.

Like aluminum, most iron "locked" inside Earth exists in the form of oxides (compounds of
iron and oxygen). Iron oxides exist in seven main ores (raw, rocky minerals mined from
Earth):

Hematite (the most plentiful)


Limonite (also called brown ore or bog iron)
Goethite
Magnetite (black ore; the magnetic type of iron oxide, also called lodestone),
Pyrite
Siderite
Taconite (a combination of hematite and magnetite).

Types of iron
1. Pig iron

Basic raw iron is called pig iron because it's produced in the form of chunky molded blocks
known as pigs. Pig iron is made by heating an iron ore (rich in iron oxide) in a blast furnace:
an enormous industrial fireplace, shaped like a cylinder, into which huge drafts of hot air are
introduced in regular "blasts". Pig iron is much harder than 100 percent pure iron, but still
too weak for most everyday purposes.

2. Cast iron

Cast iron is simply liquid iron that has been cast: poured into a mold and allowed to cool and
harden to form a finished structural shape, such as a pipe, a gear, or a big girder for an iron
bridge. Pig iron is actually a very basic form of cast iron, but it's molded only very crudely
because it's typically melted down to make steel.

3. Wrought iron

Cast iron assumes its finished shape the moment the liquid iron alloy cools down in the mold.
Wrought iron is a very different material made by mixing liquid iron with some slag. The
result is an iron alloy with a much lower carbon content. Wrought iron is softer than cast
iron and much less tough, so you can heat it up to shape it relatively easily, and it's also much
less prone to rusting.

Raw Materials
Iron ore

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-mainly iron oxides and include magnetite, hematite, limonite, and many other rocks.

Coke
-Substance made by heating coal until it becomes almost pure carbon.

Sinter
- made of lesser grade, finely divided iron ore which, is roasted with coke and lime to
remove a large amount of the impurities in the ore.

Limestone
-occurs naturally and is a source of calcium carbonate

The Ore Extraction and Refining Process

Before iron ore can be used in a blast furnace, it must be extracted from the ground and
partially refined to remove most of the impurities.

The Manufacturing Process

Charging the blast furnace

After processing, the ore is blended with other ore and goes to the blast
furnace. A blast furnace is a tower-shaped structure, made of steel, and lined
with refractory, or heat-resistant bricks. The mixture of raw material, or
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charge, enters at the top of the blast furnace. At the bottom of the furnace, very
hot air is blown, or blasted, in through nozzles called tuye'res. The coke burns
in the presence of the hot air. The oxygen in the air reacts with the carbon in
the coke to form carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide then reacts with the
iron ore to form carbon dioxide and pure iron.

Separating the iron from the slag

The melted iron sinks to the bottom of the furnace. The limestone combines with the
rock and other impurities in the ore to form a slag which is lighter than the iron and
floats on top. As the volume of the charge is reduced, more is continually added at the
top of the furnace. The iron and slag are drawn off separately from the bottom of the
furnace. The melted iron might go to a further alloying process, or might be cast into
ingots called pigs. The slag is carried away for disposal.

Treating the gases

The hot gases produced in the chemical reactions are drawn off at the top and routed
to a gas cleaning plant where they are cleaned, or scrubbed, and sent back into the
furnace; the remaining carbon monoxide, in particular, is useful to the chemical
reactions going on within the furnace.

II. Steel
KINDS OF STEEL

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According to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), steels can be broadly categorized into four
groups based on their chemical compositions:

1. Carbon Steels

Carbon steels contain trace amounts of alloying elements and account for 90% of total steel
production. Carbon steels can be further categorized into three groups depending on their carbon
content:
Low Carbon Steels/Mild Steels contain up to 0.3% carbon
Medium Carbon Steels contain 0.3 0.6% carbon
High Carbon Steels contain more than 0.6% carbon
2. Alloy Steels

Alloysteels contain alloyingelements (e.g.manganese,silicon, nickel, titanium, copper,chrom


ium and aluminum) in varying proportions in order to manipulate the steel's properties,
such as its hardenability,corrosion resistance, strength, formability,weldability or ductility.
Applications for alloys steel include pipelines, auto parts, transformers, power generators
and electric motors.

3. Stainless Steels
Stainless steels generally contain between 10-20% chromium as the main alloying element and are
valued for high corrosion resistance. With over 11% chromium, steel is about 200 times more
resistant to corrosion than mild steel. These steels can be divided into three groups based on their
crystalline structure:
Austenitic: Austenitic steels are non-magnetic and non heat-treatable, and generally contain 18%
chromium, 8% nickel and less than 0.8% carbon. Austenitic steels form the largest portion of the
global stainless steel market and are often used in food processing equipment, kitchen utensils and
piping.
Ferritic: Ferritic steels contain trace amounts of nickel, 12-17% chromium, less than 0.1% carbon,
along with other alloying elements, such as molybdenum, aluminum or titanium. These magnetic
steels cannot be hardened with heat treatment, but can be strengthened by cold working.
Martensitic: Martensitic steels contain 11-17% chromium, less than 0.4% nickel and up to 1.2%
carbon. These magnetic and heat-treatable steels are used in knives, cutting tools, as well as dental
and surgical equipment.
4. Tool Steels

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Tool steels contain tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt and vanadium in varying quantities to increase
heat resistance and durability, making them ideal for cutting and drilling equipment.

Steel products can also be divided by their shapes and related applications:
Long/Tubular Products include bars and rods, rails, wires, angles, pipes, and shapes and sections.
These products are commonly used in the automotive and construction sectors.
Flat Products include plates, sheets, coils and strips. These materials are mainly used in automotive
parts, appliances, packaging, shipbuilding, and construction.
Other Products include valves, fittings, and flanges and are mainly used as piping materials.

Raw Materials
Iron ore
-Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron and less than 2% carbon.
Iron ore is, therefore, essential for the production of steel, which in turn
is essential in maintaining a strong industrial base. 98% of mined iron
ore is used to make steel.

Coal and coke

-Coal is primarily used as a solid fuel to produce electricity and heat


through combustion. Coke, made by carburizing coal (i.e. heating in
the absence of oxygen at high temperatures), is the primary reducing
agent of iron ore. Coke reduces iron ore to molten iron saturated with
carbon, called hot metal.

Limestone
-occurs naturally and is a source of calcium carbonate

Recycled steel

Three main stages involved in making a steel product

1. First, you make the steel from iron.


2. Second, you treat the steel to improve its properties (perhaps by tempering it or
plating it with another metal).
3. Finally, you roll or otherwise shape the steel into the finished product.

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Manufacturing Process of Steel

1.Coke Making
-Coke is a material with high carbon content and porosity. It has high resistance to
breakage and low reactivity with gases, particularly CO2. Coke production is an important
part of the integrated iron and steel plants using BF-BOF route, acting as a reducing agent,
as a source of thermal energy, and providing physical support for the burden in blast
furnace. In modern blast furnaces 460 - 480 kg of total reductant /t-hot metal is needed,
and global average is 500 kg/t-hot metal.

2. Sinter Plant

- The purpose of the sinter plant is to process fine grained raw materials into a coarse grained iron
ore sinter, ready to be charged to the blast furnace. Sintering of fine particles into a porous clinker
sinter is necessary to improve the permeability of the burden, making reduction easier. A high
quality sinter has high reducability, which reduces the intensity of blast furnace operations and
reduces coke demand.

3. Blast Furnace System


- In a blast furnace (BF) the iron oxides are reduced and the resulting iron is melted. Approximately
70% of the global steel production involves the use of BFs. Sizes of BFs installed cover a very wide
spectrum, ranging from less than 100 m3 to more than 5000 m3. Larger BFs have less heat losses and
enable installation of heat recovery equipment more cost effectively.

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4. Basic Oxygen Furnace
Basic Oygen Furncace (BOF) is a pear shaped vessel where the pig iron from blast furnace,
and ferrous scrap, is refined into steel by injecting a jet high-purity oxygen through the hot
metal. More specifically, in a BOF:

the carbon content of pig iron, which is typically 4-5%, is reduced to varying levels below 1%
depending on the product specifications;
unwanted impurities are removed;
concentration of desired is brought to product specifications.

5.Casting
-A wide variety of processes that can be part of finishing are grouped under casting and shaping
(rolling). Casting is a stage in finishing operations where the hot metal with the right properties is
turned into intermediate, marketable products. Casting can be done as a batch (producing ingots) or
continuous (producing slabs, blooms or billets) process. In most mills, casting is performed in
continuous casting machines and the significantly low share of ingot casting is mainly used for
speciality products.

6. Rolling Mills
-In rolling mills, intermediate steel products are given their final shape and dimension in a series of
shaping and finishing operations. Most of the slabs are heated in reheating furnaces and rolled into
final shape in hot or coldrolling or finishing mills. While some products (e.g. reinforcement bars,
steel plates) only require hot-rolling, some others may require both hot and coldrolling (steel for
cars and white-goods). Mechanical forces for cold rolling will create much more force and energy
needs, while hot rolling happens much faster with less forces; however, there are significant energy
costs to heat the metal to near eutectic temperatures (US EPA, 2010. p.25). In large integrated steel
plants, the hot strip rolling process is the third largest user of energy after iron and steel making.

7. Electric Arc Furnace


-Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs) are a central part of the production route that is an alternative to the
dominant BF-BOF route. EAFs are used to produce carbon steels and alloy steels primarily by
recycling ferrous scrap. In an EAF scrap and/or manufactured iron units such as DRI, pig iron, iron
carbide is melted and converted into high quality steel by using high-power electric arcs formed
between a cathode and one (for DC) or three (for AC) anodes (Worrell et al., 2010. p. 14). Scrap is by
far the he most important resource, accounting for about 80% of all electric arc furnace metal
feedstock.

8. Direct Reduced Iron

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-Direct Reduced Iron (DRI), also known as Sponge Iron, offers an alternative steel production
route to BF-BOF and Scrap-EAF routes. In DRI, iron ore is reduced in its solid state unlike
BF process where a liquid metal is formed during reduction. DRI can then be transformed to
steel in electric arc furnaces. DRI production is common in Middle East, South America, India
and Mexico. DRI offers an attractive option due to its small scale low capital investment
requirements and its suitability to local raw material situations. Consequently production
has been expanding rapidly over the past three decades. However, the small scale of DRI
operations also act as a barrier for energy efficiency investments.

9. Cross Cutting Technology


-A number of cross-cutting systems, such as steam, compressed air, fan and pump, systems are
commonly operational in iron and steel mills. A number of measures can be implemented in order to
assure optimal performance of these systems and thereby save energy. Some of the common
measures are provided in this section.

10. Smelting Reduction


-Smelting reduction processes are the latest development in pig iron production. These processes
combine the gasification of coal with the melt reduction of iron ore. Energy intensity of smelting
reduction is lower than that of blast furnace, as the for coke production is not needed and the need
for ore preparation is reduced.

11. Carbon Capture and Storage


-Use of carbon capture and storage technology is a necessary precondition to the continued use of
fossil fuel based reducing agents in steel production. The process is based on capturing carbon
dioxide (CO2) from large point sources and storing it in such a way that it does not enter the
atmosphere. It can also be used to describe the scrubbing of CO2 from ambient air as a
geoengineering technique. This emerging technology could be based on various capture and storage
options, some of which only need to be adapted to the steelmaking context, while others still need
basic research.

Recycling
-Steel products naturally contribute to resource conservation through their lightweight potential,
durability and recyclability. At the end of a products life, steels 100% recyclability ensures that the
resources invested in its production are not lost and can be infinitely reused. Due to its magnetic
properties, steel is easy to separate from waste streams, enabling high recovery rates and avoiding
landfills. Some steel products contain up to 100 percent recycled content.

Responsible management of natural resources


The steel industry is highly efficient in its use of raw materials with technology available today. Key
contributing factors include high material efficiency rates, by-product recycling and steel recycling.

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Steelmaking is nearing zero-waste, with current material efficiency rates at around 96%. This
means that 96% of raw materials used on-site are converted to products and by-products that are
used or recycled.
Slag is the main steelmaking by-product; it is mostly used in cement production, reducing CO2
emissions by around 50%.12 It can also be used in roads (substituting aggregates), as fertilizer
(slag rich in phosphate, silicate, magnesium, lime, manganese and iron), and in coastal marine
blocks to facilitate coral growth thereby improving the ocean environment.
Gases from iron- and steelmaking (for example, from the coke oven, BF or BOF) once cleaned, are
used internally to produce steam and electricity reducing the demand for externally-produced
electricity. Gases can be fully reused within the steel production site, and can provide up to 60% of
the sites power.13 Alternatively, gases can also be sold for power generation. They are flared only
if no other option is available.

You can't build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if
you're going to have a strong superstructure.

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Bibliography:

http://ietd.iipnetwork.org/content/iron-and-steel
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/h-carnegie-steel.htm
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Iron_industry.aspx
http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/7786e08048855c2a8b44db6a6515bb18/ironsteel_PPAH.p
df?MOD=AJPERES

http://www.worldsteel.org/publications/fact-
sheets/content/00/text_files/file0/document/fact_raw%20materials_2014.pdf

HTTP://WWW.WORLDSTEEL.ORG/STEEL-BY-TOPIC/RAW-MATERIALS.HTML
www.worldsteel.org
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Iron.html#ixzz3ZZgGthyb

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