in the wet scrubber 40 before flowing through conduit 41 back to entrance line or conduit 11 the sponge iron coming out of the cooling reactor 26 at conveyor exit 27b is now at a sufficiently low temperature that it will not re oxidize upon contact with air or water and is thus safe for shipment and storage a further feature of this invention is the utilization of the nozzles 34 to provide a cooling liquid mist to the vibrating sponge iron particles it is contemplated that this cooling mist will only be applied during the latter or upper spirals after the temperature of the vibrating sponge iron particulate has already been sufficiently reduced basically the addition of the mist is to finally prepare the vibrating cooled sponge iron particulate for exposure to the environment at the exit conveyor 27b the method m 2 of reducing the temperature of recently produced sponge iron is accomplished by apparatus a 2 of fig4 basically the same equipment is utilized in apparatus a 2 as in apparatus a 1 therefore wherever possible the same number or letter designations will be utilized the method m 2 for reducing the temperature of recently produced sponge iron is provided by transferring sponge iron s from reactor bin 51 through vibratory conveyor 50 to the separator or fluidizing vessel 18 the fluidizing vessel 18 includes a central fluidizing housing 18a having mounted thereon a riser tube 18b cooling gas enters the apparatus a 2 through entry line 60 and joins recycling gas from line 61 for cooling through cooling coil 62 the cooled gas is then compressed in compressor 10.