Changing a Century of Steelmaking in a Flash

[@Beijingcorn420]

Basic iron melts at 2800°.Could you imagine how hot a room would need to be for something to be Tossed into it in powder form and immediately melt. Not oxidized melt into a collection chamber that can be poured or cast in high quality and do it more faster and efficient than common day.Blast furnace sounds kind of hype up Or misunderstood that is actually something that can be used in a lab setting

[@jobturner7925]

Agreed steel making process in non ferrous metals Journal is suspect. I would also be very interested to see whether they accounted for the need to pulverize the ore in their efficiency calcs. That’s a non trivial task. Still scalability payoff is attractive if process is actually refined beyond, we got some steel out the other end.

[@parrotraiser6541]

A journal called "Non-ferrous metals" seems an choice for a steel-making process.

[@bartroberts1514]

In theory, this could be done at the mine, as part of ore extraction, delivering iron ingots instead of iron ore pellets. All you need is H2 and a device that looks like it might be about the size of a diesel engine, it seems. Pack a portable smelter into a shipping container. Get the H2 gas by Allam Cycle from biomass, and pump the CO2 into the mine to help frack the ore, for carbon credits.

[@spankeyfish]

It'll also require a vast amount of electricity but mines consume a lot anyway.

[@MrGunderfly]

i wonder just how small one could make a useful / clean and safe terrestrial steel making operation using this process? i would also be interested in learning more about the possibilities of this "flash" process in a potential regolith application for extraction of lunar resources.

[@Danger_mouse]

While fine in theory, to make all steel using hydrogen would require more energy than we make currently. Approx 146,000,000 tonnes of steel was produced in 2024... That is a massive amount of hydrogen to make.

[@WilliamDye-willdye]

I've long wished that we could shape steel into its final form directly in the first smelt. Perhaps this will be a partial step towards that dream.

[@kundeleczek1]

Steel making process in non ferrous metals journal... China

[@taterbug70]

Well, great, still dint find out how it works.

[@merseyless]

The thing that always gets me when talking about hydrogen is its production. We have hydrogen gas wells, why not just mine hydrogen? Add in some solar/wind/hydrogen generators to pressurise and liquidise it, job done.

[@elijahwatt3383]

This seems like it could work on mars!

[@phobosmoon4643]

Wow finally someone is talking about China's new steel.

[@Xsiondu]

Subscribed

[@ryelor123]

I'll wait till either Applied Science, AvE, or Cody'sLab tests it out first.

[@bartroberts1514]

Why not test it yourself? Put some iron ore into a coffee mill, bubble H2 gas through the powder over a crucible, and use an induction coil to initiate the explo.. Hrm. Maybe you might want to wait for a KZbinr who knows how to keep all their fingers, and eyeballs.

[@Einwetok]

Cody's Lab FTW!

[@TheWizardGamez]

so its thermite?

[@iancormie9916]

Using hydrogen to strip the oxygen from the ore.

[@andrewsuryali8540]

Yes. It comes down to, "let's explode thermite and collect the melted deposits."

[@spankeyfish]

This sounds like a continuous version of direct hydrogen reduction.

[@Astroponicist]

Assuming that this technology could be matured and adapted for use at Luna (Earth's moon), lunar industrialization could be developed more rapidly then was previously expected.

[@prophetzarquon]

A while back, there was some story about officially naming it "the Moon" & I was enraged