MIT spinout Boston Metal has powered up its electricity driven steel production reactor and made over a ton of metal in a crucial step toward commercializing its process. With clean electricity, the process could make steel with zero CO2 emissions.
I thought induction smelting has been a thing for a while? How is this different, just that they’re hooking up to green energy sources?
Right there in the article.
Joining other efforts to decarbonize the steel-production process such as those using hydrogen to refine iron ore, Boston Metal has pioneered a process known as molten oxide electrolysis (MOE).
This method of producing the metal involves combining iron ore with an electrolyte in a reactor and then using electricity instead of coke to heat the mix to about 1,600 °C (2,900 °F). Doing so causes electrons to split the bonds in the iron ore to purify it while outputting only oxygen. Not a single molecule of carbon dioxide is released during the process.
Does an induction furnace still release CO2 somehow?
