Search Documents

By John T. Crawford

Much has been written of late regarding the flotation of coal as a means of reclaiming the valuable portion of the fines encountered in nearly all methods of coal preparation. Whether the process be wet or dry, whether the dust be sent through the entire process or removed prior to the cleaning by some such method as screening or aspiration, one of the final products consists of a considerable proportion of — 48-mesh material. The percentage of this —48-mesh material depends upon the mining method, transportation, storage, and method of preparation. The tonnage of this dust material ranges from 1 to 10 per cent of the total output of the cleaning plants. Four methods of disposal are available for this coal: 1. Disposal with the refuse from the plant. 2. Addition, after being reclaimed from the wash water, or dust collectors, without cleaning to the larger sizes. 3. Separate disposal as a pulverized fuel. 4. Cleaning so that addition to the larger sizes benefits the product as a whole. It is also true that flotation in one form or another is the only known way to effectively clean this material. While some processes do a reasonable cleaning job down to and including +l00 mesh, by far the greater majority stop at or short of the + 48-mesh size. Much of the literature on coal flotation passes by the fred pulp density and size by merely stating that the feed varies from 20 to 30 per cent solids and that the size range is from — 1/4 in. or — 1/8 in. to 0. Small wonder then that some operators with entirely different conditions, and not knowing the machine capacity, throw up their hands in despair when flotation is mentioned. Too much parallel is drawn between flotation methods as applied to ores and as applied to coal, to the detriment of the latter. In the flotation of metalliferous ores the feed pulp density ranges from 20 to 30 per cent solids, depending upon the amount of mineral to be floated and upon the size analysis. Thus where 2 to 5 per cent of the

Jan 1, 1936

By John T. Crawford

Much has been written of late regarding the flotation of coal as a means of reclaiming the valuable portion of the fines encountered in nearly all methods of coal preparation. Whether the process be wet or dry, whether the dust be sent through the entire process or removed prior to the cleaning by some such method as screening or aspiration, one of the final products consists of a considerable proportion of — 48-mesh material. The percentage of this —48-mesh material depends upon the mining method, transportation, storage, and method of preparation. The tonnage of this dust material ranges from 1 to 10 per cent of the total output of the cleaning plants. Four methods of disposal are available for this coal: 1. Disposal with the refuse from the plant. 2. Addition, after being reclaimed from the wash water, or dust collectors, without cleaning to the larger sizes. 3. Separate disposal as a pulverized fuel. 4. Cleaning so that addition to the larger sizes benefits the product as a whole. It is also true that flotation in one form or another is the only known way to effectively clean this material. While some processes do a reasonable cleaning job down to and including +l00 mesh, by far the greater majority stop at or short of the + 48-mesh size. Much of the literature on coal flotation passes by the fred pulp density and size by merely stating that the feed varies from 20 to 30 per cent solids and that the size range is from — 1/4 in. or — 1/8 in. to 0. Small wonder then that some operators with entirely different conditions, and not knowing the machine capacity, throw up their hands in despair when flotation is mentioned. Too much parallel is drawn between flotation methods as applied to ores and as applied to coal, to the detriment of the latter. In the flotation of metalliferous ores the feed pulp density ranges from 20 to 30 per cent solids, depending upon the amount of mineral to be floated and upon the size analysis. Thus where 2 to 5 per cent of the

Jan 1, 1936

By James C. Ray

The age classification of the mineralized veins of the Butte district, as given by Weed and Sales, was tacitly accepted for many years. Weed, whose field work was completed in 1906, divided the copper veins into groups of four ages.' In 1913, Sales modified Weed's classification and assigned all mineralized veins (including the silver-zinc veins of the border or "peripheral" zones) to three periods of fracturing and mineralization. Both writers based their classifications mainly on the relative ages of the observable faulting whereby the veins of a so-called "earlier" system are intersected and offset by those of a "later" system. Nevertheless they possess structural and mineralogical characteristics in common which indicate that they are of the same age. The writer has maintained since 19143 that these vein systems were formed during one general period of mineralization along a network of intersecting fractures of approximately simultaneous origin and that the existing offsets are largely due to postmineral faulting. Leith,* takes cognizance of the accumulating mass of data relative to the simultaneous formation of intersecting fracture systems and says, referring to ~utte: "It now appears that the mineralization accompanying them (individual structure systems into which the veins have been grouped) is substantially of one period, indicating that the successive structural movements took place mainly within the period of mineralization." This paper presents the results of certain structural experiments which suggest a modified interpretation of the published data on the Butte district. The interpretation is substantiated by the writer's observations in the Butte mines and is offered with the hope that it will reconcile the structural with the mineralogical conditions existing in this most interesting district; also, that it will emphasize the importance of a

Jan 1, 1931

By E. P. Pfleider, O. Rellensmann

For many years mine surveyors and exploration engineers have sought an accurate means of transferring meridian underground by using the gyro-compass. These efforts have generally failed, either because they were inaccurate or because the size and cost of the unit were prohibitive. During the past ten years, however, great strides have been made. Autonetics in California has developed a comparatively light-weight (100-lb) gyro-theodolite, and the Institute for Mine Surveying at Clausthal Mining Academy in Germany has developed an instrument that is accurate to within 20" to 30" of arc. Concurrently, Minneapolis-Honeywell has produced an astounding gyro, the size of a salt shaker, that weighs less than 0.5 lb and compares favorably in performance with the 50-lb gyros of conventional design. This unit, designed for missile guidance, should be adaptable for surveying small boreholes. Given the proper interest and approach from the engineering fraternity, excellent gyrocompasses could probably be available for accurate underground survey work at nominal cost within the next three years. Principles of the Gyro-Compass: The gyrocompass, used for 50 years as a navigational instrument in ships and aircraft, senses the turning axis of the earth and points out true polar north. It does this by employing the earth's rotation, the force of gravity, and the precession characteristics of a gyro. For further details the reader is referred to several excellent publications'"3 covering the principles and application of the gyroscope. The heart of the gyro-compass is the gyroscope, or rapidly spinning wheel, which rigidly maintains its angular orientation in inertial space. Free gyros employ universal joints to allow the wheel axle to maintain its rigid spatial orientation independent of base motion disturbances. Free gyros are independent of the earth's turning and are not north-seeking. Only as they might be initially oriented parallel to the earth's turning axis could any north indication be obtained. In practice, the free gyro tends to drift off its set position and lose its accuracy. The Sperry-Sun Well Surveying Co. instrument (5M in O. D.) is of this free gyro type. It is counterbalanced, however, against the rotational effects of the earth, so that orientation of the spinning axis will be maintained throughout the survey.

Jan 1, 1960

By Robert Stefanko

Longwall mining which has a long history abroad, was used only on a limited scale in the United States until less than 20 years ago. Modern longwall mining in this country can be said to have begun in 1960 with the first installation of self-advancing props in a coal mine in southern West Virginia. In Europe, because of adverse natural conditions, longwall mining is frequently the only practical method, but, in the United States, the system has had to compete economically with highly productive room-and-pillar systems. However, because it is inherently continuous, it has greater productive potential than room-and-pillar systems, and, therefore, although only about 5% of the total U.S. underground production today is the result of the longwall system, its growth potential is great. As mining, by necessity, progresses deeper and must be done under poorer natural conditions, less opportunity will exist for the room- and-pillar system, and the longwall system will have to be used.

Jan 1, 1981

By Paul A. Bailly

Around 4500 B.C., the Pharaoh of Egypt ordered a military campaign to the Sinai Peninsula and the shores of the Red Sea, to search for copper deposits which Egypt needed for jewelry, vases and weapons.5 To my knowledge, this is the first recorded expedition aimed at the discovery of minerals. The diligent Egyptian soldier-prospectors made discoveries through visual detection and manual effort, the approach which has given us the bulk of our mines to date. In the Rio Tinto District of Spain where Roman miners followed the Phoenician traders, we find the first evidence of discovery of hidden ore bodies in the absence of mineralized outcrops. This is how Joralemon 13 describes these Roman discoveries to the southwest of the Rio Tinto hills, under the flat plain of Seville:

Jan 6, 1979

G. F. LOUGhlin,* Washington, D. C.—With reference to Mr. Bain's paper: The scarcity of adequate geologic data on building stone reflects, among other things, a lack of interest on the part of geologists. It has been one of my duties to attend to matters relating to building stone and other structural materials that have come to the U. S. Geological Survey, but for several years my principal administrative and other duties in the Section of Metalliferous Deposits have prevented me from giving structural materials the attention that they deserve. I have felt that investigations relating to structural materials should be assigned to someone else, but thus far nobody with a sufficient interest in the subject has come forward; further, the specific calls for these investigations have been so few and far between that it has not seemed practical to draft any one for the job. The general situation is such that steady and substantial progress in the application of geology to the utilization of structural materials is not likely to be made unless someone with keen interest in the subject takes the initiative. If the start is once made, I know from experience that cooperation from the more progressive members of the quarry and building industries will be readily forthcoming. Mr. Sales' suggestions are all constructive and most welcome. A thorough, detailed discussion of them might be as long as his manuscript, but could largely be summarized with the one word "amen" qualified by the alibi that a chronic shortage of funds and therefore of personnel has prevented us from carrying out some of his suggestions already. A few of them might call for an Act of Congress before we could undertake them, and one or two, such as the preservation of mine maps, with which I heartily agree, would call for much additional space as well as clerical and supervising help. Several items in Mr. Sales' paper—for example, the question of balance between the scientific and more directly practical studies and the surveys or resurveys of the larger and smaller mining districts—have been covered in my contribution to the symposium. The suggestion of frequent reviews of progress in the study of ore deposits is excellent and can be followed without serious diversion from projects already on the Survey's program. Brief reviews by Survey men have been published in periodicals, and the contributions by several of them to the Lindgren Volume1 may also be cited as serving this purpose to some degree. The practice of publishing short papers by Survey men in outside journals rather than in Government reports is largely the result of experience and expedience. Our printing funds are limited, and considerable time must elapse between the transmittal of a paper and its publication. Time is saved therefore by sending papers to outside journals, and the editors of those journals are usually glad to receive them. Members of the Survey would doubtless prefer to have the products and byproducts of their official work appear in official Survey publications if conditions were more favorable. If we were left entirely to ourselves the balance between the more scientific and the more directly practical studies would be somewhat better than it is, but the

Jan 1, 1935

G. F. LOUGhlin,* Washington, D. C.—With reference to Mr. Bain's paper: The scarcity of adequate geologic data on building stone reflects, among other things, a lack of interest on the part of geologists. It has been one of my duties to attend to matters relating to building stone and other structural materials that have come to the U. S. Geological Survey, but for several years my principal administrative and other duties in the Section of Metalliferous Deposits have prevented me from giving structural materials the attention that they deserve. I have felt that investigations relating to structural materials should be assigned to someone else, but thus far nobody with a sufficient interest in the subject has come forward; further, the specific calls for these investigations have been so few and far between that it has not seemed practical to draft any one for the job. The general situation is such that steady and substantial progress in the application of geology to the utilization of structural materials is not likely to be made unless someone with keen interest in the subject takes the initiative. If the start is once made, I know from experience that cooperation from the more progressive members of the quarry and building industries will be readily forthcoming. Mr. Sales' suggestions are all constructive and most welcome. A thorough, detailed discussion of them might be as long as his manuscript, but could largely be summarized with the one word "amen" qualified by the alibi that a chronic shortage of funds and therefore of personnel has prevented us from carrying out some of his suggestions already. A few of them might call for an Act of Congress before we could undertake them, and one or two, such as the preservation of mine maps, with which I heartily agree, would call for much additional space as well as clerical and supervising help. Several items in Mr. Sales' paper—for example, the question of balance between the scientific and more directly practical studies and the surveys or resurveys of the larger and smaller mining districts—have been covered in my contribution to the symposium. The suggestion of frequent reviews of progress in the study of ore deposits is excellent and can be followed without serious diversion from projects already on the Survey's program. Brief reviews by Survey men have been published in periodicals, and the contributions by several of them to the Lindgren Volume1 may also be cited as serving this purpose to some degree. The practice of publishing short papers by Survey men in outside journals rather than in Government reports is largely the result of experience and expedience. Our printing funds are limited, and considerable time must elapse between the transmittal of a paper and its publication. Time is saved therefore by sending papers to outside journals, and the editors of those journals are usually glad to receive them. Members of the Survey would doubtless prefer to have the products and byproducts of their official work appear in official Survey publications if conditions were more favorable. If we were left entirely to ourselves the balance between the more scientific and the more directly practical studies would be somewhat better than it is, but the

Jan 1, 1935

ALTHOUGH the open-hearth charge contributes CO, C02, H2, and water vapor to the combustion gases and absorbs oxygen from them, in the main the thermal effects in the melting charge and molten bath can be considered independently of those in fuel combustion; the latter then is regarded simply as the source of the net heat required to finish a heat of steel. First of all, it should be remembered that a large percentage of the heat supplied to the bath is furnished by oxidation of the various elements in the charge itself. If this charge consisted of 80 to 100 per cent of hot metal and the oxidation were accomplished by blowing in air or oxygen, as in the bessemer converter, the net heat absorption would be negative; that is, the bath would contribute part of the heat required to keep the melting chamber hot, in addition to that contained in the finished steel and slag. - In actual open-hearth practices, probably the nearest approach to this is in the duplex furnace, charged with bessemer-blown metal and some hot metal, where very little heat is required to complete the refining and nearly all the heat energy from fuel combustion is used to keep the roof and walls of the melting chamber up to around 2900 to 3000 F (1600 to 1650 C), so that the bath will not cool off during the refining. The other extreme is with all-cold charges containing around 80 per cent steel scrap and 20 per cent cast iron or cold pig iron, in which case a very large proportion of the heat in the bath at tap is supplied from the fuel combustion. THERMAL EFFECTS IN MELTING In a typical heat, the fuel furnishes about four million British thermal units per ton of steel produced. The heat required for the metallurgical processes is not easily defined in useful manner but it ranges downward from about one million Btu, depending not only on the charge but on the manner of calculation. In any event, this requirement appears small in comparison with the

Jan 1, 1951

By N. Lilienberg

Refractory materials play much the same part in the producion of metals as houses and shelter for men, and it therefore seems useful to discuss sometimes the ways of manufacturing them. In fact, it appears to me that too little has been said on this important matter, probably because the manufacturers of fire-brick do not care to publish details for the benefit of competitors, but perhaps, also, by reason of the indulgent indifference of consumers. Judging from the revolutions in the manafacture of iron and steel caused by using calcareous materials for the furnace-bottoms, it does not seem improbable that in the future basic bricks may be produced suffciently strong for building also side-walls and arches, and perhaps, also, for use in blast-furnaces. But the existence of the present difficulties of great shrinkage in burning and small strength against compression, which limit the possibility of using basic bricks to Bessemer converters and such open-hearth furnaces as permit the bottom to be separated from the superstructure, seems to indicate still a long and extensive use of silica fire-bricks. I am not prepared to say anything about American fire-brick making, but knowing that industries abroad are watched with increasing interest by American manufacturers, I have imagined that this association would like to hear some facts about the way firebricks arc made in my country—Sweden. Well-known as it is that Sweden produces a high quality of iron, it is perhaps not so universally known that the same country produces a very high grade of silica fire-brick, whereby most of its own wants are supplied. In giving the following sketch I can, of course, not claim that all the facts are entirely new, but shall consider my object attained if American manufacturers can derive some benefit from the comparison of the following methods with their own, and if some discussion on this important subject can be aroused which will contribute to further progress. In order to show the extensive use of domestic fire-bricks in Sweden, where English bricks are easily obtainable, I mention the fact that about twelve millions of all kinds of fire-bricks (reduced to

Jan 1, 1885

By R. W. Raymond

In a paper on the Divining-Rod (Transactions, xi., 411), presented at the Boston meting, in February, 1883,I suggested, among other signs of which the skilled prospector might consciously or unconsciously avail himself in the search for springs of water or mineral deposits, the presence of particular grasses or shrubs, and the general appearance of the flora. There are not wanting, in the literature of our art, indications that greater attention was paid to such signs in ancient days than at present. It is the tendency of a scientific age to ignore, or regard as superstitious, what cannot be classified or explained. But the acute though unscientific observation of earlier times often, doubtless, accumulated facts which it would be worth our while to re-examine. It is highly probable that the mining prospectors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to go no further back, were close students of nature, and knew, though they could not explain, and, for reasons of private gain, would not communicate, many curious and significant facts. We can generalize better than they could; but for that very reason we are, perhaps, their inferiors in observation. They let nothing pass, because all things were equally significant to them. We take wider views, and miss more. And, no doubt, there still exists among practical millers, prospectors,, hunters, Indians, etc., an unwritten.

Jan 1, 1887

By I. J. Jansen

Introduction The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (PL 95-87) lays a new challenge before the surface mining industry by requiring that prime farmlands must be reclaimed to equivalent or higher levels of yield as nonmined prime farmland in the surrounding area (section 510d). We must now evaluate the situation and plan a mining and reclamation program that will achieve that objective. We must recognize that soil and land needs vary with intended land use and climatic setting. Also, various site conditions determine the potential for constructing a productive soil and the best procedures to accomplish that end. It is necessary to plan the land reconstruction program on a site by site basis in order to achieve the best results. Discussion The Prime Land Concept Terms like prime agricultural land have been used loosely for many years to refer to lands that are highly productive and well suited to agricultural use. The concept of what qualified as prime land varied considerably from one geographic area to another and from one person to another. The term prime farmland, as used in PL 95-87, has recently been defined quite

Jan 1, 1982

By Richard J. Gowen

THE FUTURE The environment in which we live appears to change so slowly that most of us are unaware that any change has occurred at all. As the years pass, we notice increasing smog in our cities, new variations in weather, the shifting landscape with changing populations, and subtle but ever present alterations in the quality of life. In considering the future of our environment, we find we must grapple with questions concerning the very future of life as we know it today. Questions of resources, technology, society, governance, and purpose. Let us focus on the future of our environment and, in particular, raise the question of who is responsible for the environment. We know that action, or lack of action, will clearly influence our future environment. It is fashionable to catalog the many short-sightedness of our forefathers in developing the technologies which support the style of living to which we have become accustomed. However, I shall struggle to resist the temptation to list the well known ills of our present environment. Rather, let us concentrate on the future in our consideration of the priority of the multitude of options proposed to relieve our current energy crisis. We have recently witnessed the dramatic effects of air pollution produced by Mount St. Helen's eruptions. In the state of South Dakota, we watched our blue skies turn hazy and felt our eyes sting with the presence of volcanic ash. We were appalled at the dramatic effects on the landscape, crops, transportation, and all aspects of life in communities immediately downwind of the volcanic eruption. But in a few weeks, life had returned to near normal on the earth's surface leaving the volcanic ash in the atmosphere to ultimately

Jan 1, 1983

By Francis C. Frary

OF the five metals that now show the highest figures for annual tonnage production in the world, three (iron, copper, and lead) have been known and used by man for many thousands of years. The fourth (zinc) did not come into general use until the Middle Ages. Only the fifth (aluminum) is of, ultramodern origin, as far as mankind is concerned. Discovered in 1825, and first publicly exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1855, aluminum was still so difficult to obtain that it was more expensive than silver, until the development of the dynamo provided cheap electricity and the development of the present electrolytic process for its production made it possible to make large quantities cheaply. Even today, the world production of aluminum is only about one per cent of the world production of iron, although about half that of copper by weight. The increase in production from a few tons to more than a million tons per year began with ,the development of the Hall-Héroult electrolytic process, which was first commercially operated by Mr. Hall's company, The Pittsburgh Reduction Co., in 1888. During the relatively short period of time that has elapsed since that date, it has been necessary to develop all the metallurgical and fabricating information required for the production of useful articles of the metal and its alloys, together with experience in both their production and their use, so as to be able to fit them satisfactorily into their proper places in our complex modern civilization. The fundamental properties upon which the usefulness of aluminum depends are its lightness, workability, resistance to corrosion,

Jan 1, 1953

By George A. Lamb

AMONG the main interesting developments in the coal market have been the changes that have taken place between the consumer groups. Important signs of these changes began to appear many years ago, but in a modest way, and were apparent only to the few fuel experts making broad statistical determinations. It is doubtful, however, that any of these experts appreciated the significance of their early findings, and perhaps none had the imagination to consider how extensive these changes might be eventually with respect to solid fuels sales and distribution. (Reference here will be principally to bituminous coal.) Railroad Fuel Major changes in coal use did become pronounced after World War II, and it did not take an expert to see what was taking place and how serious the impact was likely to be. First, was the case of the steam and diesel locomotives. The railroads had been considered the best coal customers; they were steady and large purchasers and usually paid a better price than most others. Railroad fuel provided the basic mine realization and it often was the source for operating cash during general market slumps. It was the outlet for 20 pct of the bituminous coal production, as much as 110 million tons in 1946.

Jan 2, 1957

By H. H. Dievendorff, F. W. Hertel

The method of drilling deep wells into the earth for the recovery of oil and gas is beset with many hazards. This is especially true in the Ventura Avenue field, which has the distinction of being the hardest field in California in which to complete a deep well. The hard, shifting and squeezing formations must be penetrated to great depths in the face of tremendous gas pressures. This field presents problems that keep the operators abreast with all of the latest developments in oil-field tools and machinery and in oil-well drilling practices. Equipment must be strong, and adapted to deep-well drilling and the handling of long heavy strings of casing. High-pressure sands require the utrnost care and attention of the operators and no chances can be taken, since a serious blowout may cause the loss of a well that has cost months of labor and expense. Equipment must meet these requirements or be discarded. Although the deepest wells in the world are not in this field, nor hav:. the longest strings of casing been set, nevertheless, the consistency with which deep wells are drilled and long strings of casing are set places the Ventura Avenue field foremost, in this respect, among the oil fields of the world. The V'entura Avenue field dors claim the deepest commercial oil-producing well in the world, in the Shell Co. of California's "Edison" No. 18. This well was drilled 7015 ft. and came in flowing 3280 bhl. of oil per day. This field also claims the deepest average depth of producing wells in that its Ill producing wells average 5676 ft. in depth. Of these 111 producing wells, 50 arc 6000 ft. or deeper, and 16 are 6500 ft. or deeper. Also, of the 111 producing wells 100 arc flowing, and 11 arc pumping wells. This paper is intended to set forth the methods used in the drilling of deep wells with rotary tools and the handling of long heavy strings of casing in the Ventura Avenue field.

Jan 1, 1928

By J. D. Irving

In the summer of 1899 there appeared in the Black Hills Mining Review† a short note announcing the discovery of certain deposits of wolframite in the vicinity of Lead City and Yellow creek, Lawrence co., South Dakota.

Jan 1, 1902

By Thomas Fraser

Because of the present interest in the subject of sulfur in coal and its removal, such information as is available in the coal-washing literature on the various factors that determine the adaptability of a coal for wash- ing have been collected and are presented here together with some observations based on results of experimental work carried out in the coal-washing laboratory of the mining department of the University of Illinois, and investigative work at Illinois nrasheries in connection with the work on reduction of the sulfur content of coal, being carried on at the Urbana Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines. This investigative

Jan 1, 1920

By G. W. King, A. Bogrow, L. F. Marek

The purpose of this paper is to present the data and some interpretation of the results of a laboratory study of the reduction of iron ore and the deposition of carbon from the reducing gas mixtures in such reductions. One major object of the study was to determine the effect of gas pressures on these chemical processes. Effort was made to approximate the conditions of temperature, gas composition, linear and mass gas velocities, pressure range, and extent of reduction prevailing in commercial blast furnaces. The results show that the reduction of Fe203 proceeds by two steps, largely consecutive under the conditions used herein: reduction of Fe203 to FeO, and reduction of FeO to Fe. Unless the gas has a CO!CO, ratio greater than 2.1 only the first step occurs under these conditions (850°C) but the following generalizations apply to either step or to the combination. The rate of reduction of relatively fine ore particles .at any time is proportional to the mass rate of supply of CO (provided some of it is thermodynamically available): the rate therefore is proportional to the linear velocity at constant pressure, or to the pressure at constant linear velocity. Thus, the rate of reduction may be increased without increase in linear velocity of the reducing gas by increasing the mass velocity of the gas and increasing the pressure correspondingly to avoid any increase in the linear velocity. The rate "constants"—i.e., the efficiency of conversion of the "available" CO supplied— is not actually constant but decreases as the reduction proceeds, and is a function only of the state of the ore; i.e., of the amount of reduction already accomplished and hence of the amount of CO passed. The particle size of ore used in nearly all the experiments was relatively small (8 to 14-mesh). The rate of reduction in run 16 with 3 to 8-mesh ore particles is within experimental error the same as with the finer ore. Although this would indicate an absence of effect due to particle size in this range of ore particles, it is desirable to have more data on other ore sizes and on ore of different densities before arriving at any generalizations on this point. Although it is possible to extend the analysis of these results to consideration of the more detailed kinetics and mechanism of iron oxide reduction, such extension is beyond the scope of the present paper. From the experiments on carbon deposition, it was evident that if carbon deposition is increased at all by the application of pressures up to 10 psi ga., such increase appears to be less than the experimental and analytical error. It appears safe to conclude that at top pressures on the order

Jan 1, 1948

By L. F. Marek, G. W. King, A. Bogrow

The purpose of this paper is to present the data and some interpretation of the results of a laboratory study of the reduction of iron ore and the deposition of carbon from the reducing gas mixtures in such reductions. One major object of the study was to determine the effect of gas pressures on these chemical processes. Effort was made to approximate the conditions of temperature, gas composition, linear and mass gas velocities, pressure range, and extent of reduction prevailing in commercial blast furnaces. The results show that the reduction of Fe203 proceeds by two steps, largely consecutive under the conditions used herein: reduction of Fe203 to FeO, and reduction of FeO to Fe. Unless the gas has a CO!CO, ratio greater than 2.1 only the first step occurs under these conditions (850°C) but the following generalizations apply to either step or to the combination. The rate of reduction of relatively fine ore particles .at any time is proportional to the mass rate of supply of CO (provided some of it is thermodynamically available): the rate therefore is proportional to the linear velocity at constant pressure, or to the pressure at constant linear velocity. Thus, the rate of reduction may be increased without increase in linear velocity of the reducing gas by increasing the mass velocity of the gas and increasing the pressure correspondingly to avoid any increase in the linear velocity. The rate "constants"—i.e., the efficiency of conversion of the "available" CO supplied— is not actually constant but decreases as the reduction proceeds, and is a function only of the state of the ore; i.e., of the amount of reduction already accomplished and hence of the amount of CO passed. The particle size of ore used in nearly all the experiments was relatively small (8 to 14-mesh). The rate of reduction in run 16 with 3 to 8-mesh ore particles is within experimental error the same as with the finer ore. Although this would indicate an absence of effect due to particle size in this range of ore particles, it is desirable to have more data on other ore sizes and on ore of different densities before arriving at any generalizations on this point. Although it is possible to extend the analysis of these results to consideration of the more detailed kinetics and mechanism of iron oxide reduction, such extension is beyond the scope of the present paper. From the experiments on carbon deposition, it was evident that if carbon deposition is increased at all by the application of pressures up to 10 psi ga., such increase appears to be less than the experimental and analytical error. It appears safe to conclude that at top pressures on the order

Jan 1, 1948