Comment on How to Escape From the Iron Age?

muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• cordlesslamp@lemmy.today ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Use renewable and clean energy sources to produce electricity then make steel with induction heater or other forms of electricity-based heat?

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  • douglasg14b@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s… Not how steel production works.

    Coal is a significant component in the production of steel to impregnate it with carbon.

    I wonder if we can move more towards charcoals, but even then I wonder if that’s just much less effective.

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    • cyd@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      How much of the coal in a blast furnace is actually necessary for the carbon impregnation, as opposed to supplying the heat via combustion? Steel contains only a few percent carbon by weight, so it doesn’t seem like much carbon is needed (not to mention that the carbon in steel is essentially sequestered).

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    • lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Charcoal steel is actually better, as charcoal is generally purer, and steel suffers from phosphor and sulphur impurities. The problem is that it’s costlier.

      I think that it would be viable to at least reduce the carbon used in steel production just to impregnate it, and conduct the bulk of the reduction through another process.

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    • Skua@kbin.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The hybrit process that some Swedish steelmakers (including SSAB - not a typo, it isn't Saab) are using looks promising. They've been testing it with Volvo and are apparently making it part of Volvo's regular process in 2026

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    • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Cool, I learned something new today.

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  • pumpkinseedoil@feddit.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Coal is required for steel, electricty-based heat would only work to lower carbon emissions (especially when recycling steel since you don’t need coal there), but you couldn’t prevent them.

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    • WallEx@feddit.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      “… Only work to lower carbon emissions” But thats exactly the point, that it is high emissions now.

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  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    electricity-based heat?

    The most expensive heat, so probably not feasable.

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    • niisyth@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Resistive, sure. Inductive, not necessarily.

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      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’m not positive, but it seems to me both would require the same amount of energy to increase a given mass to a given temp.

        And since electric heating is effective 100% efficient (all the energy is tranformed to heat), I can’t really see how either would be more efficient.

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      • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s the same. It’s not because of some losses somewhere on the way. Electricity is simply by far the most expensive form of energy.

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• hahattpro@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  what about giving up on steel and moving into something more ‘vintage’, like clay @_@

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  • pumpkinseedoil@feddit.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s fundamentally different from steel. We don’t really have an alternative currently. You could use something like aluminium but that’s not environmentally friendly either (in the initial production, for recycling it’s great).

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    • Hule@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      In Europe, even a single family home is now built using tons of steel. They build with brick, but the foundation, corner pillars, beams on top of walls are all concrete.

      A few decades ago, reinforced concrete beams were only used in large buildings and infrastructure.

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      • Raxiel@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Not to mention the huge amount of carbon emissions resulting from cement production, for the concrete that steel is fixed in

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