Summary Reader Response Draft #1

The article “How green steel made with electricity could clean up a dirty industry" by Crownhart (2022) showed that fossil fuels are quintessential in the production of steel, to be heated in blast furnaces. This reacts with the impure iron ores, containing iron oxides and other minerals, removing the oxygen and leaving liquid iron. The byproduct of this process is released as carbon dioxide, which is harmful to the environment as it absorbs the sun’s energy and an excess of this gas will lead to global warming. 
According to Casey (2022), traditional steel-making produces around two tons of carbon dioxide emissions for every ton of steel produced, which is 10% of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. As the global steel market is set to expand around 30% by 2050, there is a need for alternative green methods as some of the largest steelmakers have since pledged to reach zero-emissions by the same date. 
In the same article, Boston Metal’s green solution utilises a new process called molten oxide electrolysis (MOE), where electricity is run through a cell containing the iron oxides and materials, melting it down. The electricity used in the heating process also drives the chemical reactions responsible for removing oxygen from the iron oxides and materials, emitting oxygen gas instead of carbon dioxide.
In my opinion, Boston Steel's "Green Steel" technology will be able to significantly improve the (Earth's global warming crisis) through the removal of carbon dioxide emissions by using renewable energy and decreasing the production cost of steel.

The molten oxide electrolysis is able to run without the use of fossil fuels, an ever-depleting resource. From Casey (2022), "Fossil fuels are essential to today’s steel production. Most steelmaking starts in a blast furnace, where a coal-derived material called coke, which is almost pure carbon, reacts with iron ore, a mixture of iron oxides and other minerals. The reaction pulls out the oxygen, leaving behind liquid iron. The carbon and oxygen are then released together as carbon dioxide. " In steelmaking, fossil fuels are used to heated up and react with the iron oxide, removing the oxygen from the liquid iron. However the byproduct of the process is carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps the Sun's heat energy (Fecht 2021), attributing to global warming. This is not the case with the "Green Steel" solution, using electricity to drive the chemical reactions to remove oxygen from iron oxides. The byproduct of this process is oxygen gas, which is shown to be nonhazardous to the environment, hence making this a eco-friendly method of steel production.

Regarding cost for converting to "Green Steel", replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy is a more cost-efficient alternative in the distant future. With news of the World's second largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal investing $120 million into Boston Steel's "Green Steel", the potential of molten oxide electrolysis is certain to revolutionise the steelmaking industry. This can be deduced from Aditya Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal who stated that, “In Boston Metal, we are investing in a team that has made impressive progress over a relatively short period of time, developing a technology that has exciting potential to revolutionize steelmaking.” 

Developments in "green steel" technologies from other companies have claimed that their process are more beneficial to molten oxide electrolysis, but articles on the matter deem the opposite to be true.  An example of this is SuSteel's hydrogen plasma smelting reduction technology, which uses electricity to disassemble hydrogen gas as it passes through a hollow graphite electrode into a conical reactor.
According to Peplow (2021), the process creates a plasma stream of extremely hot hydrogen atoms, ions and molecules at temperatures surpassing 20,000 °C. The plasma then melts and reduces finely ground iron ore to form a pool of liquid iron. The process of pelletisation is not required and forming crude steel is possible without the use of electric arc furnaces as the graphite electrode is able to add carbon during the melting process, allowing its product to proceed to secondary steel refining.
In the same article, a constraint shared by most hydrogen-based methods is that they are required to be fed with hematite as magnetite is less porous and so has a slower reduction rate inside a shaft furnace. Peplow also states that despite the latest improvements to the efficiency of electrolyzers, scientists contend that it is more economical to not use hydrogen and instead use Boston Steel's molten oxide electrolysis to reduce the iron oxides. The only challenge faced by molten oxide electrolysis is the reaction releasing a large amount of oxygen that reduces the conductivity of the melt. Since then, Boston Steel have made improvements by tailoring the mixture of metal oxides to ensure that the melting temperature is reasonable, very stable and the liquid metal is less viscous to allow oxygen to escape from the mixture. Through 

To conclude, Boston Steel's "Green Steel" is a process that is capable of producing steel without having much adverse effect on the environment. With a process capable of producing steel without reliance on fossil fuels and having more benefits compared to its competitors, Boston Steel's solution should be implemented to other companies to lower the carbon emissions from the steelmaking industry.

References:

Crownhart, C. (2022, June 28). How green steel made with electricity could clean up a dirty industry. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/28/1055027/green-steel-electricity-boston-metal/ 

25, S. F. |F., Fecht, S., Joe, Keller, J. L., H., D., Climie, I., Levenson, B. P., Hidden, N., Mackenzie, D., Weller, Dennis, Edeen, E., Ddp, Adams, P., Vance, J., Bian, Q., James, Scroggins, L. J., Madden, K., … Shiff, A. (2021, March 17). How exactly does carbon dioxide cause global warming? State of the Planet. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/02/25/carbon-dioxide-cause-global-warming/ 

Naujok, D. N., Stamm, H., & Knopf, M. (2021, December 17). Decarbonizing Steel.
Oliver Wyman - Impact-Driven Strategy Advisors. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2021/dec/decarbonizing-steel.html

Peplow, M. (2021, June 14). The race for Green Steel | C&EN global enterprise. The Race for Green Steel. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cen-09922-cover

What is green steel and how can it help us reach net zero? World Economic Forum. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/green-steel-emissions-net-zero/


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yan Chen's Self-Introduction

Subject: Self-Introduction  Dear Professor, My name is Yan Chen and I am writing this email to provide a description of myself, my engineering background and motivations, as well as my communication strength and weakness. Having graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in mechatronic engineering, I have learnt to visualise product designs using computer-aided drawing (CAD) software. I have also mastered the use of machinery such as milling machines and drill presses and I believe that these skills will be valuable in my future endeavours. The reasons behind my interest for engineering lie with my admiration for my father, who works as an officer in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). He served as a firefighter before an occupation incident caused an injury that has had a negative impact on his life. I am determined to find solutions that would prevent such incidents from occurring, thus improving public safety. In terms of communication, my strength lies in my a...
Read more

Task 3: Importance of communication skills for engineers

  “I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important). It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.” Marybeth Miceli, President, Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, USA (2011) Explanation of the statement above is as follows: In her quote, Marybeth Miceli alludes to the miscommunication between engineers and the general public due to the inability of engineers to translate technical jargon into words the general public would understand. As a result, individuals may be deemed incapable, despite their capabilities. A presentation is challenging enough on its own, what more when one has to maintain audience interest and most importantly, have the audience understand what they are doing? My friends, who were not engineering majors, once asked me how I controlled my product wit...
Read more

Critical Reflection

Name: Lim Yan Chen Student ID: 2201776 Module Learning: Looking back at the goals previously set for the course, I believe that significant progress has been made improving upon weaknesses such as voicing out constructive feedback and opinions during times of conflict. I experienced this during meetings with my groupmates and I believe that critical thinking and reflection allowed me to voice out my thoughts to resolve these conflicts because it helped me to organise my thoughts and understand and pinpoint the underlying problems, defusing the situation before things worsened. During these 13 weeks, I have learned about the importance of critical thinking and reflection, being able to reflect on one's experiences and through this process, looking in-depth to the problem to formulate solutions and countermeasures, ensuring that situations like the one experienced will no longer occur/ be resolved with ease. A good visualisation of this process was introduced in class in the form of ...
Read more