Question

Define bessemerisation?

Answer 1

It is the first inexpensive process which was used in earlier times for massive amounts of steel production from pig iron, before the open hearth furnace. The principle behind this process is the oxidation reaction.

Complete step-by-step answer: So in the question, we are asked to discuss a process called bassemerisation. It is a process which is related to metallurgical processes.
We are very familiar with many metals, and the branch metallurgy is the science which explains various metals, their properties, occurrence, extraction and production methods. Each metal has its own ore from which it is extracted and each metal is a finished product. Before getting into a final product the metals go through a series of extraction process, purification process etc.
Bessemerisation is one of the processes which is involved in the purification techniques. And as each purification technique has its own principle, the principle of the bessemerisation process is oxidation of the reactant.
This process is mainly used for obtaining copper and iron from pig iron and pig copper.
Hence we could define bessemerisation as a metallurgical process in which the air is blown to the copper matte which is kept in the Bassemer converter. And this blast of air converts a part of copper sulphide to copper (I) oxide. And this formed $C{{u}_{2}}O$will react with $C{{u}_{2}}S$and produce molten Cu. And the formed molten Cu is called blister copper as the copper solidifies, the$S{{O}_{2}}$ trapped will escape causing blisters on the surface of the molten copper. The molten copper formed will be 99% pure copper and it is also called Bessmer copper.
$2C{{u}_{2}}S+3{{O}_{2}}\to 2C{{u}_{2}}O+2S{{O}_{2}}$
$2C{{u}_{2}}O+C{{u}_{2}}S\to 6Cu+S{{O}_{2}}$
And during the smelting stage the other products present in the converter including ferrous sulphide will be oxidized into $FeSi{{O}_{3}}$and are removed as slag.
Bessemerisation process was earlier used in the steel plant for the conversion of pig iron to steel by blowing air which reduces the Fe. As this process takes very less time of about 10-20 minutes to convert a massive amount of iron into steel.

Note: The copper matte is a mixture which consists of sulphides of copper and iron. And the process matte is carried out for the extraction of copper before the final reduction of the sample. During this process the slag is formed. In this process the molten matte which is present in the converter with silica liner is blown with air and this will increase the temperature and the FeS will get oxidized to FeO and it reacts with silica i.e. silicon dioxide and forms the slag which is$FeSi{{O}_{3}}$.