The use of different bio-carbonic materials to improve iron production from Fe2O3 in eleventh grade experimental science textbook

The production reaction of iron from iron (III) oxide (hematite, Fe₂O₃) in industry is carried out by burning a mixture of hematite/carbon at high temperatures. Typically, in schools and student research laboratories, this experiment is conducted using the wood-sulfur method, where sulfur-coated wood sticks are immersed in the Fe₂O₃/Na₂CO₃ mixture and then ignited. The wood-sulfur experiment is mentioned as a laboratory experiment in the eleventh-grade experimental science book. The aim of this article is to find other carbon substitutes (such as laboratory carbon and organic materials like wood waste from carpentry and paper waste) for wood-sulfur and compare their performance. The results showed that the paper method (immersing paper in Fe₂O₃/Na₂CO₃) is preferred over the wood-sulfur method because the entire process is carried out by a single piece of paper, and depending on the paper dimensions, different amounts of the mixture can be used. In methods using carbon and wood waste (wood powder), the components of the mixture are combined together and form a paste-like consistency, which is then ignited. It is worth mentioning that the product obtained from the carbon method is purer qualitatively compared to other methods and contains less carbon because in the other three methods, a larger portion of carbon burns without participating in the reaction. Furthermore, in the carbon and wood waste method, a desired amount of paste can be made and used in several experiments, eliminating the need to repeat the manufacturing process for each experiment. Qualitative observations indicated that the iron production efficiency of these methods follows the order: wood-sulfur < paper waste < wood waste < laboratory carbon.