Smelt

(noun)

Production of metal-- especially iron-- from ore in a process that involves melting and the chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal.

Related Terms

Examples of Smelt in the following topics:

  • How successful are eco-industrial parks?

    • After World War II, Finland suffered from severe energy shortages that forced Finish copper company Outokumpu to resort to ‘autogenous smelting' (or ‘flash' smelting) in which the heat produced by oxidizing metal is used to maintain smelting processes.

  • Occurrence of Metals

    • The process of extracting metals from their ores (called smelting) is thought to have been discovered around 6500 BC.
    • So while copper and iron were known well before the Copper Age and Iron Age, they would not have a large impact on humankind until the technology to smelt them from their ores, and thus mass-produce them, appeared.
    • When a metal ore is an ionic compound of that metal and a non-metal, the ore must usually be smelted (or heated with a reducing agent) to extract the pure metal.
    • Many common metals, such as iron, are smelted using carbon as a reducing agent.

  • Metallurgy

    • Processes that produce molten products are collectively referred to as smelting operations.
    • Often, however, energy must be added to the process by combustion of fuel or, in the case of some smelting processes, by the direct application of electrical energy.
    • Electro-refining is used to dissolve an impure metallic anode (typically from a smelting process) and produce a high purity cathode.

  • Extractive Metallurgy

    • Processes that produce molten products are collectively referred to as smelting operations.
    • Often, however, energy must be added to the process by combustion of fuel or, in the case of some smelting processes, by the direct application of electrical energy.
    • Electro-refining is used to dissolve an impure metallic anode (typically from a smelting process) and produce a high purity cathode.

  • Productivity Gains from Technology

    • Much of our understanding of fundamental chemistry evolved from ore smelting and refining, with De Re Metallica being the leading chemistry text for 180 years.
    • Much of our understanding of fundamental chemistry evolved from ore smelting and refining, with De Re Metallica being the leading chemistry text for 180 years.
    • Much of our understanding of fundamental chemistry evolved from ore smelting and refining, with De Re Metallica being the leading chemistry text for 180 years.

  • Iron

    • Pure iron is soft (softer than aluminium) but is unobtainable by smelting.
    • The material is significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities from the smelting process, such as carbon.

  • Iron, Cobalt, Copper, Nickel, and Zinc

    • The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal.

  • Oxides

    • The most prominent example is that of iron ore smelting.

  • The Framers of the Constitution

    • Patrick Henry refused to participate because he "smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward the monarchy. " John Hancock and Samuel Adams were also absent.

  • The Etruscan Culture

    • The Etruscans were master metal smiths and mined various ores including iron, tin, copper, silver, and gold, even smelting bronze to work with.