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>>The Cambridge researchers found that used cement is an effective substitute for lime flux So they can only "recycle" this concrete as a substitute ingredient
by sandworm101 2y ago
>>The Cambridge researchers found that used cement is an effective substitute for lime flux
So they can only "recycle" this concrete as a substitute ingredient during steel making? That cannot scale. We would have to start making epically more amounts of steel in order to process even 1% of the concrete that we would want to recycle.
- j2bax 2y agoIs there a reason they couldn't just reuse the same steel over and over just to process the cement at scale?
- sandworm101 2y agoLime is used to remove impurities from the melt. So I imaging they would have to re-add those impurities each time. I doubt that would be energy-efficient.
- dylan604 2y agoThe industries in the Steel Belt liked your post
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bell-cot 2y agoVery likely no - so long as electrical power is free-ish. Because if they aren't actually producing X units of steel along with Y units of cement in each batch, then they'll have to pay for the whole thing out of just the cement sale revenues.
- zharknado 2y agoNo, they sub it for lime flux, which had the side effect of reactivating the cement (makes “clinker”), which can then be used again in new concrete. Pretty cool hack!
- hackerlight 2y agoHow confident are you in your 1% number? Are you sure it's not 20% or 50%?