ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the general aspects of reduction as a process for producing metals. It discusses the various types of reducing agents and in some cases their methods of manufacture. Coke is discussed in some detail because of its great importance as a reducing agent. The chapter also deals with the general methods of reduction and with the reduction of the different types of compounds: oxides, halides, sulfides, cyanides, sulfates, and phosphates. Reducing agents commonly used in pyrometallurgy are carbon, carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide-hydrogen mixture, hydrogen, and some metals such as aluminum, calcium, magnesium, and sodium. Carbon is most effective for the reduction of oxides; it has no action on halides or sulfides. Reduction is usually conducted in shaft furnaces or rotary kilns. Hydrogen can be used to reduce compounds of about 30 metals to the metallic state.
