Blast Furnace

Thank you for checking out this model.
 

I built a big blast furnace a while ago, based on Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord (Germany) and Horno Alto 1 de Altos Hornos de Vizcaya (Spain), and quite a few people asked for instructions to build it. That model has about 13k bricks, far too much for LEGO Ideas, so  I decided to make a smaller version.
That meant, reducing size and scale, simplifying,  removing 10k bricks, but still trying to keep most parts of the process  available.  I hope you like the result :)

How does a blast furnace work?

I hope I understood the process correctly but please excuse any errors on my part. In short:

• Raw materials (iron ore, cokes, limestone) are hauled up a ramp in a container by a winch. The contents are then dropped into the furnace/oven.
• The hot blast is directed into the furnace through nozzles near the base. The hot blast temperature can be from 900 °C to 1300 °C (1600 °F to 2300 °F)
• The melting produces hot gasses which are collected on the top of the furnace and transported to a dustcollector/scrubber to remove the particles.
• The collected dust is transported away by truck.
• The remaining gas is re-used as fuel for the hot air towers.
• At the base of the furnace are two exits. The slightly higher located one is to extract the waste product, the slag. This flows into a slag ladle for further transport. Slag is often used for driveways.
• The lower located exit is used for the molten iron which flows to the torpedo wagon. It is then transported to an iron mill for further processing.
   

Model Info

The model is made with the maximum amount of bricks allowed, 3k
Built on two 32x32 base plates, one 16x32 and one 16x16.
The model can be split in three parts to be able to move it.

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