Blast furnace ironmaking and its ferrous burden quality requirements

The blast furnace ironmaking process is currently and will continue to be the dominant process for providing steelmaking raw materials worldwide. This chapter first gives an overview of the blast furnace ironmaking fundamentals including zones within the furnace and redox reactions involved, and then discusses the quality requirements of iron-bearing raw materials for use in the process. The relevant international standards developed to evaluate the iron-bearing raw materials for the process are also described and discussed.