Fossil free steel production: This is HYBRIT

[@mulkuth]

Erm doesnt hydrogen take like 3 times the energy to produce in eletrolosys than when its burned? Wouldnt it be easier to just use focused solar on the crucible?

[@MaykThewessen]

Great work

[@Hoarax1]

What do actual metallurgists think about this? Carbon is needed in the steel itself, otherwise it would be iron... the same with TungstenCarbide, will they replace the carbon with hydrogen in that also? Haven't found answers to those questions

[@Hoarax1]

@@AaBb-mk4sr still no answer.

[@Dan-gs3kg]

@@Hoarax1 you'd think that sequestering carbon in iron and tungsten to make tungsten carbide and steel would be the shit. Or just flue management to lower emissions. Or uh...

[@randomjapsi]

I think the ore already has plenty

[@carolvolpe]

Amazing!!!

[@guringai]

Oh , maybe they plan to absorb the oxygen from the ore with free hydrogen.... Perhaps made by renewable power and hydrolysis...?

[@polystone806]

So could i use only the green hydrogen in blast furnace?and is it really cheaper than natural gas?

[@richardallison8745]

I have an important question but who is going to pay for the windmills and solar cells, not to mention the extra electricity and hydrogen plants for the steel companies? If steel companies pay for it, steel will become very expensive not to mention cars, construction and home appliances. It seems like a perfect world with hydrogen but it comes at a big cost, especially if made green.

[@Hoarax1]

In exception of Rhodium and Palladium(maybe Lithium), iron ore has seen the biggest price increase of all metals since it's 1980 high. Increasing that further would indeed cause a significant increase in production cost

[@Load1Bongs1Not1Guns]

How will you add carbon to the steel? Hoppas på svar :)

[@guringai]

@Alex . More importantly how to remove the oxygen?

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

@@guringaiI imagine the hydrogen is part of the oxide removal stage. By generating heat through burning Hydrogen instead of coal and coal coke, it will bind the oxygen from the ferrous oxide, instead of carbon atoms, making water vapour instead of carbon dioxide. I guess after that, it has to go through a second stage of introducing carbon to the molten metal, while it's in a vacuum, to avoid any carbon dioxide being created.

[@guringai]

@@xxhellspawnedxx Ok though as the oxygen is drawn from the ore at liquid ore temperatures, and mixes with the hydrogen.... KABOOM! That's the part I don't understand

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

@@guringai I'm by no means an expert, but I would imagine that the amount of hydrogen added would be restricted, to avoid explosive results. If the purification is done in a vacuum, the hydrogen can be fed in little by little, binding the oxygen and giving off heat, but not enough at a time to cause an explosion. The resulting water vapor could then be extracted somehow, leaving them with only pure iron. But then, they weren't very clear about how this process would work. Maybe they're just planning to use hydrogen as fuel for heating the blast furnace? We can only speculate.

[@Hoarax1]

@@xxhellspawnedxx hydrogen its stochiometry doesn't really allow for that, or does it?

[@dowunda]

Uh... wher R de gettin the hydrogen from? Did they ferget that it takes energee and carbon n stuff to git it?

[@nickwabd9877]

But you still need coal, wich is a fossil fuel… so how fossil free is it

[@rubikfan1]

When this technologie is proven. Will you sells the rights to other steel companies aswell or keep it to your self?

[@velotill]

German steelmakers are well under way scaling this up, next thing is sorting out the price point with H2 and build capacities in locations with surplus renewable energy potential, ship the stuff and bingo. With the help of EU funding for initial R&D and tariffs keeping out non-green steel, we will have this (and many other Industrial processes) sorted by 2040.

[@carljohan1234]

@@velotill Which steelmakers are you referring to? Hybrit previously announced they had gotten the furthest in their R&D globally..

[@velotill]

@@carljohan1234 Salzgitter AG together with Linde started five years ago www.kfw.de/stories/environment/renewable-energy/salzgitter-ag/ Steag and Thyssenkrupp www.energie.de/et/news-detailansicht/nsctrl/detail/News/gruener-wasserstoff-fuer-gruenen-stahl Emphasis on bringing up to scale, not an expert which patents they might be using. I'm trying to say that major steel players are not going to be disrupted away by this but are busy transforming existing infrastructure to be run on green H2.

[@bistrovogna]

C

[@qurrotatechnology2073]

There's no benefits to keep it unknown from other companies..

[@scousesean9623]

Idealistic twaddle. You'd need a million windmills to produce the green hydrogen. Come clean please, you intend to use blue hydrogen and carbon capture. This is a charade.

[@Jkauppa]

if you produce aluminium first with electricity only, you can use that aluminium to reduce oxides to their main metal

[@Jkauppa]

if you do vacuum plasma ionization of oxides, you should get gases up and metals down

[@alperendulgeroglu5167]

Actually, Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto Aluminium has done something similiar to that , the project is called Elysis, and its supported by Apple and Canadian government.

[@FoamySlobbers]

answer the question.

[@jeffharmed1616]

The way the process is explained here, it sounds 100% political, 0% technical. Either re-educate you PR department or get out the game

[@alanmay7929]

Nonsense, the process is actually in test at Arcelor metal

[@jeffharmed1616]

Alan May .Hey anybody can reduce iron ore with hydrogen but not economically on earth. That’s why this project is 100% political because it sucks as a market option. On the moon and on mars where there are no fossil fuels, the reaction of ilmenite with hydrogen is a major contender for producing iron, followed by reaction with carbon monoxide to carbonyls which can be fractionated to the pure metals. But IMHO the mostly likely process to succeed, put forward by Pioneering Astronautics, is to use CO for reduction and fractionation.

[@isakjohansson7134]

@@jeffharmed1616 i mean its paid by our tax money so they dont have to give a shit, it is 100% political and most people are too stupid to question it.

[@jeffharmed1616]

Current research is using carbon MONOXIDE to reduce AND purify metals from ilmenite and similar metal ores.

[@runway65]

You will need som nice heavy electrolyzer, and for that you will need some effective windmills and of course some batterys and of course some big copper cable and at least hughe ammounts of clear water, and than please good tracing for the tubes, but it will happen in 2045. Are there any ideas to bring down the total consumption of fossils in the mean time? Up in the North you produce some million tonns of CO2 every year..

[@jeffharmed1616]

The climate change movement is political and damaging to life. Why? Because their carbon tax idea kills flora and fauna. Fact - both mars and Venus have very high CO2 concentrations in their atmospheres whereas in between these two planets there is earth with only 0.04%. That is due to flora. So flora optimises the climate to suit life very effectively. Supporting plant life is philanthropic and is the way to go. Taxing carbon is kleptocracy at work. It is lethal for the populations of poor countries and it is a bad idea. The more expensive green energy reduces money for alleviating starvation. Lower carbon dioxide levels reduce crop yields resulting in more deaths. Photosynthesis is endothermic. It reduces the ambient temperature and supports life. Fortunately the USA rejects the Paris accord and is doing the right thing - feeding and supporting flora.

[@starrmayhem]

so? why don't you want them do it? i think it is pretty impressive if hybrit can reduce emission & do it cheaply

[@zeppelinkiddy]

Abnormal amounts of water entering the atmosphere from any form of hydrogen combustion, be it vehicle transportation or Hybrit steel making, will affect the climate.

[@ToloGF]

I hope it rains more

[@bryan92252]

You're worried about that, despite two thirds of the Earth's surface being covered in water?