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MrAkaziel t1_j6hc6ro wrote

Reply to comment by youself20 in US company gets $120 million boost to make 'green steel' by Ok_Champion6840

The article is pretty vague about the process, but it sounds like something close to existing electric arc furnaces. It's unclear by the way the wording what the difference between EAF and that new tech is.

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pumpkin_fire t1_j6hdald wrote

Nah, EAFs mostly melt scrap steel. Maybe some DRI as well. But are incapable of chemically reducing the iron ore to elemental iron.

Boston Melts claims to have developed a process that allows direct electrolysis of iron ore fines into elemental iron, so that the reduction and the refining to steel all happen in the one vessel. Oftentimes, electrolysis of metals involves a carbon anode that still releases CO2 - this is how almost all aluminium is produced. Crucially, Boston Metals claim to have invented an inert anode that doesn't release any CO2.

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WikiSummarizerBot t1_j6hc7w6 wrote

Electric arc furnace

>An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc. Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to about 400-tonne units used for secondary steelmaking. Arc furnaces used in research laboratories and by dentists may have a capacity of only a few dozen grams. Industrial electric arc furnace temperatures can reach 1,800 °C (3,300 °F), while laboratory units can exceed 3,000 °C (5,400 °F).

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