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How does a process work that makes Iron from Rust using only electricity? Conventional blast furnaces use a reducing gas or coal for the reduction. The websit

How does a process work that makes Iron from Rust using only electricity? Conventional blast furnaces use a reducing gas or coal for the reduction. The website has no link to anything concrete here (but mentions conventional furnaces). And also, how on earth do you make iron dust from the iron after reducing it back from its rust state?

jacquesm 4y ago
it doesn't 'only' use electricity, it uses hydrogen for the reduction process, and the hydrogen can be made using electricity. As for the second: you don't recast it as pig iron, you keep it in its fragment state.
- LordHeini 4y ago
  Using hydrogen would make no sense whatsoever since hydrogen could be stored anyway. "fragment state" is something that does not exists. You got a large vessel of molten iron, you pour that into a form, take the slack off and that is it. Maybe one could use a fall tower to make small iron pellets like the ones used for making lead shot. That would need to be done in an oxygen free environment using some inert gas. The whole process seems quite impractical. And something else: Pure Iron rusts quite easily so how do you store it? You can not store a large bucket full of iron pellets for your oven in a cellar. So storage would need an enclosed container. The whole idea is just weird.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    > Using hydrogen would make no sense whatsoever since hydrogen could be stored anyway. Storing and using hydrogen to turn it back to electricity at scale is not a simple problem (see my other comment in this thread). > "fragment state" is something that does not exists. In the article they are pretty clear about using very small particulate, both for the 'pure' state as well as for the 'burned' state. > You got a large vessel of molten iron, you pour that into a form, take the slack off and that is it. This has absolutely nothing to do with the process as described in the article, you are discussing the casting of pig iron, here we are talking about an oxidization and a reduction process based on powder sized grains of iron. > Maybe one could use a fall tower to make small iron pellets like the ones used for making lead shot. > That would need to be done in an oxygen free environment using some inert gas. This also has absolutely nothing to do with the process as described in the article. > The whole process seems quite impractical. That's the problem with strawmen. > And something else: Pure Iron rusts quite easily so how do you store it? You can not store a large bucket full of iron pellets for your oven in a cellar. > So storage would need an enclosed container. Yes, like the storage for any other kind of fuel. > The whole idea is just weird. It's weird because you don't appear to understand the first principles of the process described in the article, which is already operating at a smaller scale and which they will now scale up to 5 MW to gather more data about costs and scaling efficiency. >

jacquesm 4y ago

it doesn't 'only' use electricity, it uses hydrogen for the reduction process, and the hydrogen can be made using electricity. As for the second: you don't recast it as pig iron, you keep it in its fragment state.

LordHeini 4y ago
Using hydrogen would make no sense whatsoever since hydrogen could be stored anyway. "fragment state" is something that does not exists. You got a large vessel of molten iron, you pour that into a form, take the slack off and that is it. Maybe one could use a fall tower to make small iron pellets like the ones used for making lead shot. That would need to be done in an oxygen free environment using some inert gas. The whole process seems quite impractical. And something else: Pure Iron rusts quite easily so how do you store it? You can not store a large bucket full of iron pellets for your oven in a cellar. So storage would need an enclosed container. The whole idea is just weird.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  > Using hydrogen would make no sense whatsoever since hydrogen could be stored anyway. Storing and using hydrogen to turn it back to electricity at scale is not a simple problem (see my other comment in this thread). > "fragment state" is something that does not exists. In the article they are pretty clear about using very small particulate, both for the 'pure' state as well as for the 'burned' state. > You got a large vessel of molten iron, you pour that into a form, take the slack off and that is it. This has absolutely nothing to do with the process as described in the article, you are discussing the casting of pig iron, here we are talking about an oxidization and a reduction process based on powder sized grains of iron. > Maybe one could use a fall tower to make small iron pellets like the ones used for making lead shot. > That would need to be done in an oxygen free environment using some inert gas. This also has absolutely nothing to do with the process as described in the article. > The whole process seems quite impractical. That's the problem with strawmen. > And something else: Pure Iron rusts quite easily so how do you store it? You can not store a large bucket full of iron pellets for your oven in a cellar. > So storage would need an enclosed container. Yes, like the storage for any other kind of fuel. > The whole idea is just weird. It's weird because you don't appear to understand the first principles of the process described in the article, which is already operating at a smaller scale and which they will now scale up to 5 MW to gather more data about costs and scaling efficiency. >