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Microwave Steelmaking
Makarand writes "Researchers at the Michigan Technological University are working on a
low-cost
steelmaking process which uses microwaves to heat iron ore instead of conventional heating.
Their steelmaking facility was made of magnetrons from six household microwaves wired together and an electric arc furnace. When fed iron oxide and coal, the microwave energy could reduce the iron ore to iron within minutes and the electric
arc furnace smelted the iron and coal into steel. The steel industry is taking a closer
look at this new process which could cut steel production costs by upto 50%."
He then put iron oxide and coal inside. In a matter of minutes, the microwave energy reduced the iron ore to iron, and the electric arc furnace smelted the iron and coal into steel.
Sounds like he did, (IANAMetallurgist), although you are right, the article is really vague. Amusing how two adjacent sentences refer to adding "iron oxide" and "iron ore", which are completely different.
Ok, a few basic principles of steel manufacture.
In order to make iron, iron ore and coal (well, coke actually) are dropped in layers in an operating blast furnace. The coke burns in the furnace and as a consequence reduces the iron ore to iron, as well as supplying enough heat to keep the contents of the bottom of the furnace molten.
So, you need coal to make coke to make iron... to make steel and such.
Bad Things happen if the blast furnace runs out of coke, Very Bad Things in fact, so these pretty much run 24x7, meaning you've normally got a giant stockpile of coal to cover any conceivable loss of supply (normally a few weeks supply).
So... if you've got all these ludicrous amounts of coal around (stockpiles of 100,000t are not uncommon) and a giant energy requirement, you can easily and economically build an on-site power station to power the rest of the system.
And the fun part is you can sell your excess capacity to the grid at a profit for a good 10 or 15 years, because you built your plant larger than you needed to allow for growth in your steel mill.
(Aluminium plants use an entirely different process, of which the only part I know about is they use an obscene amount of electricity and no coal required as in a blast furnace.)
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Having toured an aluminum fly casting plant, I saw the gigantic magneto-constrictor melting pots that they use, and was told specifically that they relied on Wisconsin Electric for their power.
What they do is to have a bunch of huge electromagnets and pulse them rapidly. This causes the electrons in the container to jitter producing the heat needed. It was all very interesting, and molten aluminum is one of the most beautiful thins I have aver seen.
The belly button lint one's been pretty well solved!
Do you have any idea on the multiple steps needed to make any particular alloy of steel?
No?
Do you know how to check the ore for sulfur?
How about too much Phophorus?
No again?
Do you know when and why to add lime?
Hmmmm????
Lets try an easy one: What are the alloying elements in 4140 Steel? No looking it up online, after all, this is unskilled knowledge!!!!!
How about the time and temperature schedule for heat treating 6061 alloy Aluminium to the T5 State???
So, you have no knowledge about metals at all, other than that they are (sometimes) shiny?
So where do you get off denigrating the skills of people who can do something which you have no idea how to even start?
Of all the things I loath, the arrogance of people who call a task they could not do if I held a blowtorch to their genitalia and their life depended on it "Unskilled" is near the top of the list.