Explain why the reaction between charcoal (a form of carbon) and iron oxide is useful
the steel in industry.
Answers
Explanation:
In steel industry, one of the critical process is the extraction of iron from Iron oxide.
Now for this reaction the main reactants are IronOxide and carbon or charcoal. This is basically a reduction reaction because iron oxide is reduced to iron and carbon combines with oxygen to form carbondioxide. Normally in big steel industries, the annual exclusion of carbon dioxide is in the scale of tons.
The reaction between charcoal and iron oxide is useful in the steel industry due to the following reasons:
- Steel is an alloy of iron with various metals.
- By removing impurities like carbon dioxide from iron and adding metals like manganese, tungsten, nickel, chromium, molybdenum etc steel is produced.
- A process called blast furnace is used in the manufacturing of Steel in which iron is extracted iron oxide.
- Blast furnace is basically a reduction reaction in which iron oxide is reduced and as a result iron is formed.
- Here, charcoal which is a form of carbon is also used in which carbon combines with oxygen (oxidation occurs) to form carbon dioxide.
- Here, The overall reaction is:-
Fe2O3 (s) + 3C (s) ---> 2Fe (l) + 3CO (g)