8 ms·
The four-horse race to decarbonise steel
- petermcneeley 4y ago>To decarbonise DRI, producers can add carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to catch the emitted CO2. Or, if they have an external heating source, they can use pure hydrogen instead of coal, a process called HDRI – this is the decarbonising steel technology that has probably received the most investment up to now. Alternatively, there are two types of electrolysis technologies. In aqueous electrolysis (AE), as used by Electra, iron ore is submerged in acid and zapped with electricity, making the oxygen bubble off. In molten oxide electrolysis (MOE), electrodes are placed in powdered iron ore and a high current is run through it until it melts, and the oxygen comes off. All of these processes require an intense amount of energy either directly or indirectly. Where is all this energy to come from if right now it comes from coal/fuel?
- JumpCrisscross 4y agoIt should be obvious that electrification requires producing more electricity.
- weinzierl 4y agoDecarbonising steel is a funny thing to say. Since steel is an alloy of iron and carbon it should mean turning steel into iron. Of course it is meant in a different way in the article.
- shirleyquirk 4y agoThat process is called /decarburization/
- realworldperson 4y ago[dead]
- perilunar 4y agoyeah, but you turn pig iron and cast iron into steel by removing carbon, not adding it.
- dermesser 4y agoYes, the confusing issue is that iron-in-your-house or as a building material generally has a higher carbon content than steel, making the latter more elastic and less brittle (generally).
- jpgvm 4y agoAll I am seeing is a ton of reasons to build an absolute boat load of cheap nuclear power. None of these processes are even remotely possible without abundant essentially free energy.
- laurencerowe 4y agoIf only nuclear power were cheap!
- jpgvm 4y agoIt is! Just not in Western countries sadly. China is building a ton of nuclear at very good prices.
- TaylorAlexander 4y agoI’m curious how Chinese nuclear power plant prices compare to Chinese solar panel prices. They are both cheaper than in western countries.
- chii 4y agothe question is whether it's cheaper because labour costs are cheaper or is something being compromised to make it cheaper (such as safety)?
- mjevans 4y agoDidn't China build a huge hydropower dam because the government dictated it would happen ? Even over the people that had to move and the changes to their environment? Nuclear power is expensive in the US because of stringent regulations, most of which should be kept. However there are lessons from existing installations, newer designs, and better technology to help design things now, than in the 50s and 60s.
- dontlaugh 4y ago
- robocat 4y ago> Sweden’s SSAB, for example, is building an underground cavern, where it will store hydrogen it has created using off-peak North Sea offshore wind I found the following information about the SSAB pilot cavern: The pilot plant has a size of 100 cubic meters. At a later stage, a full-scale hydrogen gas storage facility measuring 100,000 to 120,000 cubic meters may be required which is sufficient to supply a full-sized sponge iron factory for three to four days.
- kolinko 4y agoAnything about pressure, or total weight of hydrogen stored? Without those it’s unknown really how much energy or hydrogen they store.
- chii 4y ago> to supply a full-sized sponge iron factory for three to four days how long does it take to fill, because if it takes longer than 3-4 days to fill, then it's not a matter of storage capacity, but production capacity.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y agoThe technical challenges must be greater than I imagined, because even for a pilot study, 100m3 seems very small.
- TazeTSchnitzel 4y agoI wonder how they prevent the gas in such a cavern from exploding?
- patall 4y agoBy not adding oxygen?! Hydrogen itself doesn't spontaneously explode.
- TazeTSchnitzel 4y agoSure, but if there's a leak you have a problem.
- natmaka 4y agoOn the Road to Decarbonisation with Hydrogen: ArcelorMittal (Eisenhüttenstadt plant) https://hydrogen-central.com/on-road-decarbonisation-hydrogen-arcelormittal-veo-mcphy-build-pilot-electrolysis-plant-in-eisenhuttenstadt/ https://hydrogen-central.com/on-road-decarbonisation-hydroge...
- larsrc 4y agoAnyone have any idea what the solution Electra uses is?
- panick21_ 4y ago> “A couple of years ago, they developed a proof of concept, but nobody’s heard anything from them since,” says Bataille. “The hope is they are close to hitting commercial scale.” That kind of a strange thing to say. Boston Metal has been progressing just fine and have been sharing some of their progress online and are in talks with lots of different partners. I don't think the industry is confused of where they are.
- hyperbovine 4y agoWhat the heck does this website do to the back button?