section_path: Applications/Industrial
section_name: Industrial
paragraph_text: Industrial
  
  Smelting of iron ore into steel consumes 55% of commercially produced oxygen. In this process, O is injected through a high-pressure lance into molten iron, which removes sulfur impurities and excess carbon as the respective oxides, SO and CO. The reactions are exothermic, so the temperature increases to 1,700 ° C.
  
  Another 25% of commercially produced oxygen is used by the chemical industry. Ethylene is reacted with O to create ethylene oxide, which, in turn, is converted into ethylene glycol; the primary feeder material used to manufacture a host of products, including antifreeze and polyester polymers (the precursors of many plastics and fabrics).
  
  Most of the remaining 20% of commercially produced oxygen is used in medical applications, metal cutting and welding, as an oxidizer in rocket fuel, and in water treatment. Oxygen is used in oxyacetylene welding, burning acetylene with O to produce a very hot flame. In this process, metal up to 60 cm (24 in) thick is first heated with a small oxy-acetylene flame and then quickly cut by a large stream of O.