blast furnace?

teilchen

might be a naive question, but concerning the blast furnace:

they blow pure o2 through the raw iron to oxidise impurities like carbon etc, but that would mean that exactly the right amount of o2 would have to be blown through before the iron also started reacting, which in turn means the impurity conc. must be explicitly known? and how might this be done?

just out of interest...

thanks :)

Astronuc

A chemical analysis of the ore/pig iron is performed.

Here is a discussion of the use of oxgyen in the steel making process:
http://www.key-to-steel.com/Articles/Art2.htm

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