Hot Air

Duisburg, Germany

Three hot blast stoves for smelting iron ore. The blast stoves contain a checkerwork of stacked refractory brick full of air passages. Hot waste gases from the blast furnace are blown into each stove to heat the brick, and then fresh air is directed through the stove to heat it before it is blown into the blast furnace to provide the oxygen to smelt the ore. The stoves are charged, heated and blown in cycles, hence blast furnaces typically have three or four stoves each.