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Metallurgical coal or coking coal [1] is a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke. Coke is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. [2] [3] [4] The demand for metallurgical coal is highly coupled to the demand for steel. Primary steelmaking companies often have a division that ...
Between 1920 and 2000, labour requirements decreased by a factor of 1000, to 3 man-hours per thousand tonnes. [citation needed] In 2013, 70% of global steel output came from the basic oxygen furnace. [14] Furnaces can convert up to 350 tons of iron into steel in less than 40 minutes, compared to 10–12 hours in an open hearth furnace. [15]
The replacement of charcoal with coal in the steel-making process revolutionized the industry, and tied steelmaking to coal-mining areas. In the 1800s, making a ton of steel required a greater weight of coal than iron ore. Therefore, it was more economical to locate closer to the coal mines.
In 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2016 output fell in the majority of steel-producing countries as a result of the global recession. In 2010 and 2017, it started to rise again. Crude steel production contracted in all regions in 2019 except in Asia and the Middle East. India is the 2nd leading producer of iron and steel industries. [citation needed]
The two main inputs into iron- and steel-making are a source of iron and a source of energy. Additional requirements are a fluxing material to remove the impurities, and alloy metals to give particular properties to the metal. Raw materials used in US iron and steel production, 2012
The primary advantage of the early blast furnace was in large scale production and making iron implements more readily available to peasants. [26] Cast iron is more brittle than wrought iron or steel, which required additional fining and then cementation or co-fusion to produce, but for menial activities such as farming it sufficed.
Because iron and steel-making at the time consumed more coal than iron ore, the steel mills moved closer to the coal mines to minimize transportation costs. Although later overshadowed by production from the Lake Superior mines, iron ore mining in New Jersey and New York continued until the 1960s. Iron mining in Pennsylvania ended in 1973.
Steel is an alloy composed of between 0.2 and 2.0 percent carbon, with the balance being iron. From prehistory through the creation of the blast furnace, iron was produced from iron ore as wrought iron, 99.82–100 percent Fe, and the process of making steel involved adding carbon to iron, usually in a serendipitous manner, in the forge, or via the cementation process.