The Blast Furnace

The blast furnace is a reactor type chimney with down dry cargo (ore, coke and
fluxes) and ascending gas charge (reducing gas, blast furnace gas). Its operation is
continuous, remaining years of uninterrupted operation. The blast furnace has by
definition a big furnace, coated sheet metal outside and inside of refractory bricks,
destined to melt and reduce iron ore to transform it into pig iron.
What results in the blast furnace process its a iron rich in carbon (between 2,5 e 4%
of C; "pig iron") that can not be welded (because its not soften gradually, but blow
suddenly) or forged (becomes stiff and brittle to cool). And with the purpose of
overcoming the inconveniences, the content of C in the Fe its reduced for down of
1,7%, then we have the material to make steel . The average pig composition is,
besides Fe: Carbon 2,5 - 4%; silicon 0,5 - 3%; Manganese 0.5 - 6%; phosphorus 02%; sulfur 0.01 - 0.05%.
Blast furnace equipment
Higher - 30 m.
Inner diameter: 10 m (in local of the support ring).
Contents: 500-800 m
Uninterrupted operation (24 hours, for 10 years)
Production: about 1 million tons of Fe per year.
Consumption: 3.5x 10 to the 6 toneldas of solid raw material.
Blast Furnace Structure
The structure of the blast furnace can be divided basically in crucible, ramp, vat and
top.

top
Loading system

vat

Wind ring

ramp
tuyeres

crucible
Output of scoria

Output of pig iron

The vat receives the metallic charge (iron ore, pellets, sinter), fluxing agents
(limestone, quartz and dolomite) and reducing fuel (coking coal or charcoal) inserted
in the top of the blast furnace through a charging system, being more common by
conveyor belts. Also in the top occurs the output of blast furnace gases, through the
gas rise tubes. These gases are reused in other processes after undergoing a
cleaning process.
Just above the crucible is located the ramp, that is the most heated region of the
blast furnace, concentrating most of the ore reduction reactions. The crucible
corresponds to the part where is accumulate the liquid metal (pig iron) and scoria
resulting from reduction processes. They are separated by their respective densities.
In the upper part of the crucible are positioned the tuyeres generally in terms of
number 20 to 32, in which, the preheated air under pressure is injected into the
furnace for reduction reactions Oxygen (O2) , that corresponds to 21% of hot air that
is blown inside the combustion zone, burning the carbon coke or charcoal, producing
then CO2. This gas CO2 reacts with more CARBON while the temperature is above
900 Celsius producing CO (carbon monoxide). The tuyeres are connected to the
wind ring, which surrounds into the blast furnace structure and receives the hot air
from the regenerators. The leak of such materials is done through race holes pig iron

and scoria, bearing in mind that the slag tap hole is positioned above the pig iron
taphole, due to the density of the scoria is lower than the pig iron , making the slag
be above the pig iron. The leak of these materials is done at the race home.

Bibliographic References
Available in :
http://www.timoteo.cefetmg.br/site/sobre/cursos/quimica/repositorio/artigos/arq/Proce
sso_do_Alto_Forno.pdf - access 20.10.2015 at 13h36min.

Avaiable in : https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alto-forno - access 22.10.2015 at

15h20min.
Avaiable in: www.fat.uerj.br/intranet/disciplinas/.../MCM%20-%20aula
%202.doc access 22.10.2015 at 16h05min.