How Are "Adsorption" And "Absorption"

Different?
You may have run across some terms used in the description of the
Moisture Control System's operation that are unclear to you. You may
for instance wonder at the term "adsorption" and think it a typo where
we meant to write “absorption". In actuality these terms represent two
very different scientific concepts. For the answers to this and other
questions on desiccant operation, read on.

Absorption is when a substance is chemically integrated into another.

When you drink a glass of water, you are absorbing it, as the water
becomes part of you.

Adsorption is when one substance is being held inside another by

physical bonds. If you spill a glass of water on your shirt, it is
adsorbed as the fibers will hold the water until heat dries out the shirt.

Most desiccants don't chemically combine with water or the other

substances they're present to protect against. They capture them
through adsorption, and stow them away where they can't cause harm
to the product.

How Do Desiccants Work?

It is important to understand how the desiccant does its job of
protecting the product. Most porous adsorbents, such as silica gel,
activated clay or molecular sieves rely upon physical adsorption rather
than chemical adsorption to accomplish their function.

Physical adsorption involves relatively weak intermolecular forces (van

der Waals forces and electrostatic interactions) between the moisture
and surface of the desiccant.

Chemisorbents, such as calcium oxide, involve an actual chemical

bond. Physical adsorption of moisture is typically exothermic. The
strength of the adsorptive bonds can thus be measured by the heat of
adsorption. The higher the heat of adsorption for moisture on the
desiccant, the stronger the bonding and the less easily that moisture
can be subsequently removed.

In a porous desiccant such as the silica gel used by Dri-Box, water is

removed from the airspace by:
1) multi-layer adsorption, which is the attraction of thin layers of water
molecules to the surface of the desiccant. Because the desiccant is
very porous, the surface area is high and significant amounts of water
can be attracted and adsorbed;
2) by capillary condensation in which the smaller pores become filled
with water.
Capillary condensation occurs because the saturation water vapor
pressure in a small pore is reduced by the effect of surface tension.

How Are Desiccants Rated?

Packaging engineers face a confusing array of variables when selecting
moisture adsorbents partly because moisture control is a multifaceted
challenge.

There are four sources of water contamination in a closed container or

package:
the water vapor in the air inside the package;
the water vapor adsorbed by the materials inside the package;
the water vapor on the walls of the package;
and the permeation of water vapor into the package.

Historically, desiccants are chosen by application-testing, commonly

known as trial and error. The variables can be classified into two main
groups:
those pertaining to the product, its package and its environment;
and the various properties of commercially available desiccants.

Through firsthand testing and published research, the packaging

engineer determines the conditions surrounding optimum product
preservation and performance.

In attempting to meet and maintain these conditions, one often

encounters moisture and its accompanying hazards: corrosion, rust,
mold, mildew, fungus, swelling and other undesirable factors affecting
product integrity. Where can one turn for answers?

Based upon its wartime experience in the development of food and

drug drying agents, the US Department of Defense developed
specifications addressing the elimination of corrosion and mildew by
adsorbing the moisture from the air of an enclosed space.

In November 1963, the DOD released MIL-D-3464C, covering the use

of bagged desiccants for packaging and static dehumidification.
Three years later, MID-D-3464D served to update the original
specification, creating a uniform standard of comparison in a wide
variety of areas: adsorption capacity and rate, dusting characteristics
of the package, strength and corrosiveness of the package and particle
size of the desiccant.

In 1973, the DOD followed with specifications for cleaning, drying,

preserving, and packaging of items, equipment and materials for
protection against corrosion, mechanical and physical damage and
other forms of deterioration. MIL-D-3464 and MIL-P-116 have long
been the only objective source for packaging engineers. The strength
of these specs lies in determining a uniform unit of drying capacity,
enabling one to compare desiccant effectiveness on a common scale.

The specifications, however, fail to deal specifically with variables,

such as product environment, packaging of the product itself, and the
type of desiccant suitable for a specific need.

Also, other important factors are defined but not applied: desiccant
packaging form, cover stock, adsorption rate and adsorption capacity.
These specifications seem only to compare the conformance of the
desiccant selected to Defense Department standards.

As a result, the packaging engineer may be at a loss to choose with

confidence which particular desiccant is best for each application.
Thus, the engineer must move outside the limited scope of military
specifications and into the real world of moisture-proof packaging: the
product's environment and package.

For more information, see the entries and charts on our selection
page.

How Does Moisture Cause Damage To A

Product?
Moisture trapped within a product package or leaking into it during
storage and shipping can cause many harmful effects. The stability of
many pharmaceutical formulations and diagnostic reagents, as well as
the maintenance of their physical product integrity, is often closely tied
to the moisture conditions of the package environment.

In unsterile or poorly sterilized situations, moisture can promote the

growth of mold, mildew and fungus. Products using some polymers are
prone to swelling in high humidity conditions as intermolecular bonding
between polymer chains can be weakened by the presence of water. In
some cases water can become an integral part of the bulk crystal
structure of a product through the formation of hydrates. If a solid is
very water soluble, such as a sugar coating, and the right conditions
exist, dissolution into the sorbed layer can trigger irreversible water
uptake and subsequent deliquescence.

In the case of electronics, the presence of moisture can cause not only
corrosion but also can lead to "short" circuits, wherein the electricity
powering the device reroutes through the water instead of its assigned
conductive path. These will not necessarily lead to cinematic instance
of panels blowing open and sparks flying. In fact, they will usually be
much more subtle and untraceable by making the device's operation
unreliable. Sometimes it works... sometimes it doesn't. At the very
least a situation like this is frustrating; at worst, life-threatening.

What Is "Saturation" And "Equilibrium

Capacity"?
Although technically they are different situations, for most practical
purposes these two terms cover the point at which a desiccant no
longer adsorbs moisture.

Saturation is when the desiccant is full and even if there were moisture
molecules to pick up, the desiccant could not adsorb them.

Equilibrium capacity is when the desiccant has pulled so much

moisture out of the air that the air retains a stronger hold on the
moisture molecules than the desiccant can exert. At equilibrium
capacity, adding more desiccant will not bring the relative humidity
any lower.
IRON AND STEEL

This page looks at the use of the Blast Furnace in the extraction of
iron from iron ore, and the conversion of the raw iron from the
furnace into various kinds of steel.

Extracting iron from iron ore using a Blast Furnace

Introduction

The common ores of iron are both iron oxides, and these can be
reduced to iron by heating them with carbon in the form of coke.
Coke is produced by heating coal in the absence of air.

Coke is cheap and provides both the reducing agent for the
reaction and also the heat source - as you will see below.

Iron ores

The most commonly used iron ores are haematite (US: hematite),
Fe2O3, and magnetite, Fe3O4.
Note: The two equations for the reduction of the ore on this page are for
haematite. In the fairly unlikely event that you need the equations for
magnetite, they aren't difficult to work out for yourself.

The Blast Furnace

The heat source

The air blown into the bottom of the furnace is heated using the hot
waste gases from the top. Heat energy is valuable, and it is
important not to waste any.

The coke (essentially impure carbon) burns in the blast of hot air to
form carbon dioxide - a strongly exothermic reaction. This reaction
is the main source of heat in the furnace.

The reduction of the ore

At the high temperature at the bottom of the furnace, carbon

dioxide reacts with carbon to produce carbon monoxide.

It is the carbon monoxide which is the main reducing agent in the

furnace.

In the hotter parts of the furnace, the carbon itself also acts as a
reducing agent. Notice that at these temperatures, the other
product of the reaction is carbon monoxide, not carbon dioxide.

The temperature of the furnace is hot enough to melt the iron which
trickles down to the bottom where it can be tapped off.

The function of the limestone

Iron ore isn't pure iron oxide - it also contains an assortment of

rocky material. This wouldn't melt at the temperature of the
furnace, and would eventually clog it up. The limestone is added to
convert this into slag which melts and runs to the bottom.

The heat of the furnace decomposes the limestone to give calcium

oxide.

This is an endothermic reaction, absorbing heat from the furnace. It

is therefore important not to add too much limestone because it
would otherwise cool the furnace.

Calcium oxide is a basic oxide and reacts with acidic oxides such
as silicon dioxide present in the rock. Calcium oxide reacts with
silicon dioxide to give calcium silicate.

The calcium silicate melts and runs down through the furnace to
form a layer on top of the molten iron. It can be tapped off from
time to time as slag.

Slag is used in road making and as "slag cement" - a final ground

slag which can be used in cement, often mixed with Portland
cement.

Cast iron

The molten iron from the bottom of the furnace can be used as
cast iron.

Cast iron is very runny when it is molten and doesn't shrink much
when it solidifies. It is therefore ideal for making castings - hence its
name. However, it is very impure, containing about 4% of carbon.
This carbon makes it very hard, but also very brittle. If you hit it
hard, it tends to shatter rather than bend or dent.

Cast iron is used for things like manhole covers, guttering and
drainpipes, cylinder blocks in car engines, Aga-type cookers, and
very expensive and very heavy cookware.
Note: It is quite difficult to find examples of uses for cast iron, because it
is nowadays often replaced by other materials. For example, although
guttering and drainpipes were once made of cast iron, apart from special
old buildings, it is now quite hard to find any which aren't made of plastic!

Steel

Most of the molten iron from a Blast Furnace is used to make one
of a number of types of steel. There isn't just one substance called
steel - they are a family of alloys of iron with carbon or various
metals. More about this later . . .

Steel-making: the basic oxygen process

Impurities in the iron from the Blast Furnace include carbon,

sulphur, phosphorus and silicon. These have to be removed.

Removal of sulphur

Sulphur has to be removed first in a separate process.

Magnesium powder is blown through the molten iron and the
sulphur reacts with it to form magnesium sulphide. This forms a
slag on top of the iron and can be removed.

Removal of carbon etc

The still impure molten iron is mixed with scrap iron (from recycling)
and oxygen is blown on to the mixture. The oxygen reacts with the
remaining impurities to form various oxides.

The carbon forms carbon monoxide. Since this is a gas it removes

itself from the iron! This carbon monoxide can be cleaned and used
as a fuel gas.

Elements like phosphorus and silicon react with the oxygen to form
acidic oxides. These are removed using quicklime (calcium
oxide) which is added to the furnace during the oxygen blow. They
react to form compounds such as calcium silicate or calcium
phosphate which form a slag on top of the iron.

Types of iron and steel

Cast iron has already been mentioned above. This section deals
with the types of iron and steel which are produced as a result of
the steel-making process.

Wrought iron

If all the carbon is removed from the iron to give high purity iron, it
is known as wrought iron. Wrought iron is quite soft and easily
worked and has little structural strength. It was once used to make
decorative gates and railings, but these days mild steel is normally
used instead.

Mild steel

Mild steel is iron containing up to about 0.25% of carbon. The

presence of the carbon makes the steel stronger and harder than
pure iron. The higher the percentage of carbon, the harder the steel
becomes.
Mild steel is used for lots of things - nails, wire, car bodies, ship
building, girders and bridges amongst others.

High carbon steel

High carbon steel contains up to about 1.5% of carbon. The

presence of the extra carbon makes it very hard, but it also makes
it more brittle. High carbon steel is used for cutting tools and
masonry nails (nails designed to be driven into concrete blocks or
brickwork without bending). You have to be careful with high
carbon steel because it tends to fracture rather than bend if you
mistreat it.

Special steels

These are iron alloyed with other metals. For example:

iron mixed special

uses include
with properties

cutlery, cooking
utensils, kitchen
stainless chromium resists sinks, industrial
steel and nickel corrosion equipment for
food and drink
processing

withstands
titanium gas turbines,
titanium high
steel spacecraft
temperatures

rock-breaking
machinery, some
manganese
manganese very hard railway track (e.g.
steel
points), military
helmets

Some environmental considerations

This section is designed to give you a brief idea of the sort of

environmental issues involved with the extraction of iron and its
conversion to steel. I wouldn't claim that it covers everything!
 Note: This is deliberately brief because a lot of it is just common sense,
and you will probably already have met it in detail in earlier chemistry
courses, in geography, in general studies, or wherever.

If you aren't sure about the various environmental problems like acid rain,
global warming and the like, the very best site to find out about them is the
US Environmental Protection Agency.

Environmental problems in mining and transporting the raw

materials

Think about:

• Loss of landscape due to mining, processing and

transporting the iron ore, coke and limestone.
• Noise and air pollution (greenhouse effect, acid rain)
involved in these operations.

Extracting iron from the ore

Think about:

• Loss of landscape due to the size of the chemical plant

needed.
• Noise.
• Atmospheric pollution from the various stages of extraction.
For example: carbon dioxide (greenhouse effect); carbon
monoxide (poisonous); sulphur dioxide from the sulphur
content of the ores (poisonous, acid rain).
• Disposal of slag, some of which is just dumped.
• Transport of the finished iron.

Recycling

Think about:

• Saving of raw materials and energy by not having to first

extract the iron from the ore.
• Avoiding the pollution problems in the extraction of iron from
the ore.
 • Not having to find space to dump the unwanted iron if it
wasn't recycled.
• (Offsetting these to a minor extent) Energy and pollution
costs in collecting and transporting the recycled iron to the
steel works.

Where would you like to go now?

To the Metal Extraction menu . . .

To the Inorganic Chemistry menu . . .

To Main Menu . . .

© Jim Clark 2005