Question

Blast furnace is employed in the smelting of oxide ore with coke and flux in the metallurgy of
A. Iron
B. Copper
C. Lead
D. All the above

Answer 1

Hint: A blast furnace is one kind of cylindrical furnace that is used for the smelting process. Here the word ‘blast’ means the combustion of air that is forcefully occurred to the atmospheric pressure above.

Complete Step by Step Answer:
A metallurgical blast furnace produces pig iron from iron ore by the reducing action of carbon at a very high temperature and in the presence of fluxing agents like limestone. It produces liquid metal form into the bottom of the furnace which consists of a mixture of coke, metallic ore, etc.

Therefore by using the process industrial metals can be extracted from their ores like pig iron, iron, lead, copper, etc. At the bottom of the Blast furnace, there is a series of parallel pipes which transfer hot blast air richer in oxygen. When hot air is entered oxide ore is reduced to convert it into impure metal and the produced slag goes to the top of the furnace where it is popped off. Finally, this slag and molten metal are produced as the final product.

Thus, a blast furnace is employed in the smelting of oxide ore with coke and flux in the metallurgy of iron (Fe) and also for the smelting of other materials lead and copper.
$FeO(s)+C(s)\to Fe(s/l)+CO(g)$
Thus, option (D) is the correct.

Note: When the iron is extracted in the blast furnace, there is always some amount of slag or impurities produced. At this point we can use two methods to eliminate this impurity: one is applying a high-pressure jet and the second is to make a separate area where we bumped the slag.