Chemical uses of carbon

The chemical uses of elemental carbon are dominated by the fact that it is the cheapest reducing agent used on a large scale. Many processes illustrating this use are presented in this book. Two major ones are the production of iron, 

The reduction of metal compounds using carbon (charcoal) to produce metals has been known for many centuries. A problem associated with this use of carbon is that when an excess of carbon is used (which is necessary for a reaction to go to completion in a 

---