World production of nickel pig iron, and proportion of that in the primary nickel production.
Nickel pig iron (NPI) is a low grade ferronickel invented in China as a cheaper alternative to pure nickel for the production of stainless steel[citation needed]. The production process of nickel pig iron utilizes lateritic nickel ores instead of pure nickel sold on the world market. The alternative was developed as a response to the high price of pure nickel. The estimated cost of a ton of nickel pig iron ranged between US$16,500 and $18,000 in 2012, and this cheaper substitute for pure nickel influences the price of nickel on the world market by lowering the demand in certain applications, the most important being the production of stainless steel, representing about two-thirds of nickel use[citation needed].
Nickel pig iron is made of low-grade nickel ore, coking coal, and a mixture of gravel and sand as an aggregate. This mixture is heated in either a blast furnace or an electric arc furnace depending on the desired grade. Impurities are then removed via smelting and sintering processes and the resulting nickel pig iron contains four to 13 percent pure nickel. According to the Canadian city of Sudbury, nickel pig iron equals "dirty nickel" because the production process is not environmentally friendly, the carbon dioxide emissions being particularly high. China had imported most of the nickel containing ore from Indonesia and the Philippines, but as of Jan 2014, Indonesia has banned the export of ore[citation needed]. China imported 53 percent of the nickel ore from Indonesia in 2011[citation needed].
While China is credited with the invention of NPI, there are reports that NPI has been around for more than 100 years, but it was the Chinese who successfully made the production commercially viable.[1]
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, opacity, and luster, but may have properties that differ from those of the pure metals, such as increased strength or hardness. In some cases, an alloy may reduce the overall cost of the material while preserving important properties. In other cases, the mixture imparts synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength.
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon with improved strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, steel is one of the most commonly manufactured materials in the world. Steel is used in buildings, as concrete reinforcing rods, in bridges, infrastructure, tools, ships, trains, cars, bicycles, machines, electrical appliances, furniture, and weapons.
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to that of cast iron. It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions, which give it a wood-like "grain" that is visible when it is etched, rusted, or bent to failure. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion resistant, and easily forge welded, but is more difficult to weld electrically.
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its carbon appears: white cast iron has its carbon combined into an iron carbide named cementite, which is very hard, but brittle, as it allows cracks to pass straight through; grey cast iron has graphite flakes which deflect a passing crack and initiate countless new cracks as the material breaks, and ductile cast iron has spherical graphite "nodules" which stop the crack from further progressing.
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the form of magnetite (Fe 3O 4, 72.4% Fe), hematite (Fe 2O 3, 69.9% Fe), goethite (FeO(OH), 62.9% Fe), limonite (FeO(OH)·n(H2O), 55% Fe), or siderite (FeCO3, 48.2% Fe).
Cupronickel or copper–nickel (CuNi) is an alloy of copper with nickel, usually along with small quantities of other elements added for strength, such as iron and manganese. The copper content typically varies from 60 to 90 percent.
Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon are removed from the sourced iron, and alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium, carbon and vanadium are added to produce different grades of steel.
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other factors.
A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a bloom. The mix of slag and iron in the bloom, termed sponge iron, is usually consolidated and further forged into wrought iron. Blast furnaces, which produce pig iron, have largely superseded bloomeries.
Ferrochrome or ferrochromium (FeCr) is a type of ferroalloy, that is, an alloy of chromium and iron, generally containing 50 to 70% chromium by weight.
Ferroalloy refers to various alloys of iron with a high proportion of one or more other elements such as manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), or silicon (Si). They are used in the production of steels and alloys. The alloys impart distinctive qualities to steel and cast iron or serve important functions during production and are, therefore, closely associated with the iron and steel industry, the leading consumer of ferroalloys. The leading producers of ferroalloys in 2014 were China, South Africa, India, Russia and Kazakhstan, which accounted for 84% of the world production. World production of ferroalloys was estimated as 52.8 million tonnes in 2015.
Direct reduced iron (DRI), also called sponge iron, is produced from the direct reduction of iron ore into iron by a reducing gas which either contains elemental carbon or hydrogen. When hydrogen is used as the reducing gas there are no greenhouse gases produced. Many ores are suitable for direct reduction.
The SAE steel grades system is a standard alloy numbering system for steel grades maintained by SAE International.
Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ores began, but by the end of the 2nd millennium BC iron was being produced from iron ores in the region from Greece to India, The use of wrought iron was known by the 1st millennium BC, and its spread defined the Iron Age. During the medieval period, smiths in Europe found a way of producing wrought iron from cast iron, in this context known as pig iron, using finery forges. All these processes required charcoal as fuel.
Cornwall Iron Furnace is a designated National Historic Landmark that is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Cornwall, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The furnace was a leading Pennsylvania iron producer from 1742 until it was shut down in 1883. The furnaces, support buildings and surrounding community have been preserved as a historical site and museum, providing a glimpse into Lebanon County's industrial past. The site is the only intact charcoal-burning iron blast furnace in its original plantation in the western hemisphere. Established by Peter Grubb in 1742, Cornwall Furnace was operated during the Revolution by his sons Curtis and Peter Jr. who were major arms providers to George Washington. Robert Coleman acquired Cornwall Furnace after the Revolution and became Pennsylvania's first millionaire. Ownership of the furnace and its surroundings was transferred to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1932.
Lateritic nickel ore deposits are surficial, weathered rinds formed on ultramafic rocks. They account for 73% of the continental world nickel resources and will be in the future the dominant source for the mining of nickel.
In 2022, the United States was the world’s third-largest producer of raw steel, and the sixth-largest producer of pig iron. The industry produced 29million metric tons of pig iron and 88million tons of steel. Most iron and steel in the United States is now made from iron and steel scrap, rather than iron ore. The United States is also a major importer of iron and steel, as well as iron and steel products.
Xiang Guangda is a Chinese industrialist. He is the founder of the Tsingshan Holding Group, a metallurgical company primarily engaged in the manufacturing of stainless steel.
The Krupp–Renn process was a direct reduction steelmaking process used from the 1930s to the 1970s. It used a rotary furnace and was one of the few technically and commercially successful direct reduction processes in the world, acting as an alternative to blast furnaces due to their coke consumption. The Krupp-Renn process consumed mainly hard coal and had the unique characteristic of partially melting the charge. This method is beneficial for processing low-quality or non-melting ores, as their waste material forms a protective layer that can be easily separated from the iron. It generates Luppen, nodules of pre-reduced iron ore, which can be easily melted down.
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