With more than 500 million tons annual production world-wide, the blast furnace is by far the most

important unit of pig iron production.

The blast furnace works on a counter-current principle. Due to the higher economy of bigger furnaces, the
number of high capacity units are in operation has been increasing for quite a long time. Large modern blast
furnaces allow a daily production of over 10000 t.

Since the temperature of the charge materials and also their volume are increasing during the descent, the
furnace diameter is enlarged from the top downward to avoid "scaffolding", i.e. clogging of the furnace.

Since in the lower parts of the furnace the charge materials or their products of transformation melt with
volume contraction it is possible to reduce the furnace diameter.

For charging, coke and burden (ore and flux) are fed in layers. This burdening is effected either by means of
a lift system where a container ("bell type distributing gear") is put on the furnace and emptied or by means
of a permanent installed container which is filled with a conveyor belt. A rotating runway allows continuous
feeding and even charging. Another advantage of the latter system is that less energy-rich top gas is lost
during burdening. The flux is necessary to transform the gangue (iron-free stone part of the ore, usually
silicondioxide or aluminium (III) oxide) in well melting calcium - aluminium - silicates. This slag also
dissolves the ash contained in the coke.

Below the largest diameter the tuyere line is located in which air, preheated to 900-1300 °C and sometimes
enriched with oxygen is blown in through 6 - 12 tuyeres (water-cooled nozzles of copper). The room in front
of these tuyeres is the hottest place (1850 - 2200 °C) in the furnace. In the lowest part of the blast furnace
("hearth") the liquid pig iron is collected, which is covered by the molten slag preventing the reoxidation of
the iron by the wind.

The blast furnace itself is composed of a steel coat which is lined with refractory material (fire clay, mullite,
corundum, chromium oxide, carbon below the tuyeres). In addition, the warmer parts ( 300 °C) of the coat
are water-cooled because strength of steel decreases markedly at higher temperatures. From outside the
furnace is propped by a supporting structure.

The furnace interior can be separated in various areas, depending on temperature and occurring reactions.

a) top: 200 - 250 °C, drying of the charge, preheating

b) upper shaft: 250 - 700 °C, decomposition of hydrates and carbonates which requires large amounts of
energy, i.e. of course, also fuel. When using sinter a part of this work can already be done in the sinter plant.

c) lower shaft: 700 - 1000 °C, " indirect reduction" of ferrous oxides with carbonmonoxide and hydrogen.
The reduction of magnetite (Fe3O4) to wustite (FeO) is endothermic, the other reactions (e.g. FeO to Fe) are
exothermic. A far reaching indirect reduction is desired because of its economy. As a side reaction also iron
carbide is formed by reaction of iron with CO. Carbondioxide formed during the reduction processes is
retransformed to CO by means of coke in a temperature-dependent equilibrium reaction ("Boudouard
equilibrium"). The recovering of CO loses importance with decreasing temperature, because the reaction
velocity becomes too slow and in addition the position of equilibrium shifts to higher carbondioxide shares.

d) upper bosh line, e) bosh:  1000 - 1600 °C, "direct reduction" and carburizing = ferrous oxide but also
other oxides (among other manganese, silicon, phosphorous) are reduced directly with coke. At the same
time iron and gangue are melting and the liquid iron drops through the glowing coke and is thus further
carburized. Carburizing reduces the melting point to 1100 - 1300 °C (pure iron: 1539 °C).

f) hearth: 1600 °C (in the combustion area in front of the tuyeres up to 2200 °C), gasification of coke,
formation of CO and Hydrogen, generation of heat.

Pig iron and slag are "tapped" discontinuously from time to time through a tap hole. Flues (stopper where
the iron is flowing below) make sure that the slag, which has a distinctive lower density than iron, is
collected separately. Closing of the tap hole is effected by a clay gun with a plastified mass of kaolin, fine
coal and tar, which hardens under the impact of the heat of the tap hole. For tapping, this stopper is drilled
out with a pneumatic hammer. Smaller quantities are collected in crane ladles (tiltable, cylindrical steel
containers with refractory lining). In the case of big blast furnaces producing larger quantities of pig iron per
tap pig iron is filled in "torpedo ladles". These are horizontally fixed containers with a cylindrical middle
part and truncated cone-shaped ends, each of which is mounted on a multiple axis railroad car. The
container is made of welded steel sheet with refractory lining inside. The ladle can be rotated around its
longitudinal axis in order to position an opening in the middle part on the top for filling and transportation
and at the bottom for emptying. Due to the closed design only little heat is lost. The filling capacity amounts
up to 600 t. The slag is filled in tiltable railroad cars and dropped in a slag pit where it cools down and
solidifies. After crushing it is used for road construction or for production of mortar, cement or building
stones.

The top gas leaving the furnace contains carbonmonoxide (~ 19 %), carbondioxide (~ 22 %), hydrogen (~
3%) and nitrogen (rest), hence it has a calorific value of 3200 to 4000 kJ/m3. Modern blast furnaces are
working at a higher internal pressure causing a better utilisation of the gaseous reducing agents, thus the
CO-content of the top gas is lower and hence also the calorific value. The energy content of the top gas is
used for preheating air in the cowpers, in the sinter plant and for running pumps. The rest is sold or used for
generating electricity. The credit entry for this export gas is an important factor for calculating the operating
costs.

Since top gas is processed in sensitive plants, it was purified long before strict environmental laws were
enacted. After preliminary (dry) cleaning in the dust catcher and centrifugal separator treatment in scrubbers
and (circumstances requiring) purification with electric filters follow.

Cowper (air preheater) are large refractory lined sheet cylinders, with a checker brickwork inside. Top gas
(enriched with coke-oven or natural gas, if the calorific value is too low) is combusted with air in
combustion chambers which are placed either inside the cylinder, or (in modern plants) in separate shafts
outside. The hot off gas is passed through the latticed brickwork which is heated up in the process. If the
temperature of the brickwork is high enough, the gas is shut off and the cowper is switched from heating to
blowing. For this reason cold air is passed through the brickwork in the opposite direction and heated up in
the process by getting into contact with the bricks. Since the temperature of the heated air decreases slightly
during blowing, cold air is added in the beginning to reach always a constant temperature of the hot blast.
To make sure that always the same quantity of hot blast with constant pressure and temperature is available,
three (seldom four) cowpers are combined, two of which are heating while one is used for hot blast
generation.