Polish coke

In 1709, at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, England, Abraham Darby for the first time in history used as a fuel a blast furnace coke – not a charcoal like it was used to be done before. Foundry work was just a minor branch of the industry. Darby's son built a new furnace at nearby Horsehay and began producing and selling coke pig iron. It was widely bought by the owners of finery forges, who used it to produce iron bars. Coke pig iron was very useful, because by this time it was cheaper to produce than widely used charcoal pig iron. Coal-derived fuel used in the iron industry was one of the pillars of the British Industrial Revolution.

Modern last furnace in Sestao, Spain

The blast furnace is one of the signs of modern iron production. Modern furnaces are highly efficient, because they include Cowper stoves (for pre-heating the blast air) and employ recovery systems (for extraction the heat from the hot gases exiting the furnace). Competition in industry drives higher production rates. The largest blast furnaces in the world have a volume around 5580 cubic meters (about 190 thousand cubic feet). They can produce around 80 thousand tons (about 88 thousand short tons) of iron per week.

This is really great increase from the typical eighteenth-century furnaces, which average production was about 360 tons (400 short tons) per year. Variations of the blast furnace, such as the Swedish electric blast furnace, have been developed in countries and regions, where is no native coal resources and importing it wouldn’t be economic. All the regular furnaces use a blast furnace coke as a fuel.

CATEGORY: blast furnace coke