How can you get iron out of rock?

Answer 1

Iron is extracted from iron ore simply by heating the ore, a process known as smelting.

This depends on the rock.

If the rock contain IronOxide (of which many do), then heat alone is not enough.

When adding heat to Iron Oxide, you get melted Iron Oxide, of which is of hardly any use to anybody as such.

The trick is affinity of materials.

Oxygen has got a high affinity for Iron but an even greater love for Carbon.

This is why one (Espechally in olden days) uses loads of charcoal when melting the rock containing IronOxide.. The material melts. The oxygen breaks up its relationship with Iron and falls in love with the carbon instead.

This leave the Iron alone, it melts and forms at the bottom.

One can also use electricity in order to force affinity to where there normally is none.

If rocks have got Iron bound other ways, electricity can be used, but always together with high heat.

I suppose one could "burn" the rocks (Not that they burn, but they heat up) so that the Iron inside reacts with Oxygen forming IronOxide. Then use that product together with charcoal separating and leaving the pure Iron.

It takes a lot of energy to produce Iron.

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Yes, charcoal was used in the early days as fuel and reagent but this was replaced by coke (coal burnt in low-oxygen conditions to drive off its volatile and gaseous compounds). Coke has a far higher calorific value than charcoal, so is far more efficient as a fuel, and the effiency of the Blast Furnaces in which the process takes place is raised still further by using the very hot exhaust gases to heat the incoming air.

The last paragraph does not make sense. The "rocks" are Iron Ore, which is Iron Oxide, so the reaction can only be one that separates the iron from the oxygen.

Answer 2

Iron can be extracted from rock through a process called smelting, where the rock is heated to a high temperature in the presence of a reducing agent like carbon. This converts the iron oxides in the rock into molten iron which can be separated from the other components of the rock. Alternatively, iron can also be extracted through the use of chemical solvents or bioleaching methods.