Question

The temperature at which iron ore is heated is around ______

(a) 2500°C

(b) 1000°C

(c) 1200°C

(d) 1800°C

This question was addressed to me in unit test.

This intriguing question originated from Manufacture of Tinplate in chapter Metal Packaging Materials of Food Packaging Technology

Answer 1

The correct choice is (d) 1800°C

The best explanation: The iron ores used are generally hematite (Fe2O3) with some magnetite (Fe3O4). Commercial extraction of iron from its ores is carried out in blast furnaces, where a mixture of iron ores, solid fuel (coke) and fluxes (limestone and dolomite) are heated to around 1800°C. This results in the reduction of most of the iron oxides to metallic iron (m.p. ≈ 1200°C). Today, modern blast furnaces are capable of producing molten iron of near constant composition at high rates.