This textbook explores the production of pig iron, covering the first part of the steel production process, known as ironmaking. Divided into seven chapters, it discusses the following topics: raw materials for steel production (coking coal, iron ore, slag-forming agents and fluxes, scrap, ferroalloys and pre-reduced materials), the sintering process (used to prepare the burden for the blast furnace), the pelletizing process (used to agglomerate the fine iron ores), the production of coke (the main reductant in the ironmaking process), the production of iron by reduction with gas (an alternative to the blast furnace) and the production of pig iron in the blast furnace (which is used in more than 65% of steel production worldwide).

Specially conceived for graduate and undergraduate courses, this book is based on more than 30 years of teaching experience in courses for undergraduates, graduates (master and Ph.D.) and industry professionals (technicians). It explores the recent trends in the iron- and steelmaking process (which might used in the future production of steel), and features 55 worked exercises and real-world problems to complement of the theoretical sections of the text.



This book describes the operations and industrial processes related to the production of steel. The chapters cover the second part of the iron and steelmaking process, called steelmaking, presenting the stages of the process until obtaining the finished steel product in different formats for distinct applications. This book reports significant operating variables of the processes and basic operations of the steelmaking. The chapters contain numerous solved exercises conceptually supported on the thermodynamic and kinetic fundamentals of the production of steel from the pig iron in the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) and the production of steel and ferroalloys in Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF). The thermal and mechanic fundamentals of the hot rolling operations and the mechanical fundamentals of the cold rolling, forming, and wire drawing to obtain different steel products are also reported. The book summarizes the strengths and uncertainties of steel as a structural material.


This book covers the physical metallurgy of steels as well as the heat treatments used to improve the their properties. A full chapter is dedicated to the atmospheres in the steelmaking, including the implications of the own gases generated in the iron and steelmaking factories and how they could be applied in these treatments. This book is specially conceived for graduate and undergraduate courses, being the result of more than 30 years of teaching experience in courses for undergraduate, graduate (master and Ph. D.), and companies (technicians). The trends in the re-utilization of industrial gases in the iron and steelmaking process are discussed by the authors. Additionally, the book comprises 41 solved exercises, problems and case-studies, as a complement of the theoretical sections of the text. These exercises, problems, and case-studies are based on problems observed in the industrial practice.