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    China develops new iron making method that boosts productivity by 3,600 times
    Futurology

    China develops new iron making method that boosts productivity by 3,600 times

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    25 Comments

    2. Keening99 on

      What’s the caveat if any? And what’s the name of the company with the patent? They publicly traded? Lol

    4. Enjoying_A_Meal on

      The flash iron making method, as detailed by Professor Zhang Wenhai and his team in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal *Nonferrous Metals* last month, can complete the iron making process in just three to six seconds, compared to the five to six hours required by traditional blast furnaces.

      This represents a 3,600-fold or more increase in speed. The new method also performs exceptionally well with low or medium-yield ores, which are plentiful in China, according to the researchers, *the South China Morning Post* 

      Zhang’s team has developed a vortex lance that can inject 450 tonnes of iron ore particles per hour. A reactor equipped with three such lances produces 7.11 million tonnes of iron annually. As per the paper, the lance “has already entered commercial production.”

      Seem too good to be true. I guess we’ll see in a year or two if this is the real deal.

    5. NEET_Phase on

      A new flash iron making technology developed in China can complete the iron making process in just three to six seconds, a 3,600-fold increase in speed compared to traditional blast furnaces.

      The new method, which eliminates the need for coal entirely, could improve energy use efficiency in China’s steel industry by over one-third and help achieve near-zero carbon dioxide emissions.

      China’s steel industry, which currently relies on blast furnace smelting processes, faces a significant challenge in meeting ambitious carbon reduction goals, but the new flash iron making technology developed by Professor Zhang Wenhai’s team shows promise in addressing this issue.

    7. koboldium on

      Let me guess – all i takes is perfect vacuum, combined with pressure and temperature comparable to the conditions in the center of a star?

    8. FarmboyJustice on

      My guess is it’s 3600 times more efficient for small batches  once everything is set up and ready to run.

    9. jumpmanzero on

      TLDR: You can see the innovation in the background of the picture here. Where normally these ironworkers would be shirtless and glistening, they now all have to wear shirts. No exceptions!

      Some of the productivity gains are safety related, some comes from less time “managing distractions and tension”. And of course fewer dance breaks.

    11. TheFrenchSavage on

      “High tech vortex lance to throw iron ore dust”

      Ok, so this is just a reverse-Dyson vacuum then.

    12. gnarlin on

      Oh boy, I can’t wait to read the news that the workers salary increased by 3600 times! Any day now.

    13. Throwawhaey on

      Anytime I see something like 3600x, I’m suspicious that it was original 3600%, aka a 36x improvement.

      Either way, still very impressive.

    15. farticustheelder on

      So another nail in coal’s coffin. Steel and cement are, or rather, were two industrial processes that were thought to be highly resistant to decarbonization. Not so hard after all.

      Good for the planet and good for China’s industry.

      However just about every comment is negative. Sour grapes that the US has lost its primacy in world events? Going into that funk that settled on the UK after it lost its empire?

    16. NZ_Guest on

      So…. not true… or true and based on stolen information from anywhere outside of China, but no real world applications at this time.

    17. AnomalyNexus on

      Hold up…did yahoo really add a fake Generate Key takeaway button that doesn’t generate anything…just reveals text?

    18. Negroni84 on

      Once this tech becomes outsourced, the potential for better infrastructure in BRICS nations will be huge! These nations will be able to Urbanise in a more efficient and climate cohesive way! Mag train’s connecting the entire African continent could be a dream
      Come true!

    20. BetterthanU4rl on

      So its really good if you want to pump out low quality ore quickly. Why am I not surprised to hear that coming from China?

    21. waylandsmith on

      Two huge unanswered questions:

      1. How much energy does this cost? It only mentions a reduction in the amount of coal/coke used. The main purpose of ore smelting is to remove the oxygen bound to the iron in the ore to produce pure iron metal. The carbon in the coke will remove the oxygen from the iron to preferentially combine with the carbon (creating CO2). That binding energy needs to be overcome even if it’s not done by carbon. How efficient is it? (Yes, I know there are other low-carbon iron smelting methods out there right now).
      2. How much of a bottleneck was this in the overall process of steel production? It mentions a 3600x increase in speed for this portion of the overall process, but was this the bottleneck? How quickly can this “nearly instantly” smelted liquid iron be cast? What’s the new bottleneck and what’s the new overall speed?

      It seems very likely that overall, this could be a significant improvement on traditional methods if it ends up being energy-efficient, but it’s focused on a single part of a large, complicated process and there’s no indication of what its overall impact will have with the information given so far.

    23. AffectEconomy6034 on

      been a busy beginning of the year for chinese production claims first the 6th gen jet fighter, then the solar satellite that will beam more energy to earth than all remaining oil, now the 3600X increase in iron production.

      at this rate I’m expecting the announcement of a time machine