April 2024 Metallurgy Blog
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April 8, 2024
First Pilot "Green" Steel Production Plant Opens in Colorado
First Pilot "Green" Steel Production Plant Opens in Colorado
“Green” Iron manufacturer Electra recently opened its first ever pilot plant in Colorado, it will use renewable energy to produce clean metallic iron from high-impurity ores. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Electra has strong Finacial backing from several big names including Bill Gates and Amazon. 90% of CO2 emissions in steel production come from ironmaking and Electra claims that this accounts for 7% of emissions worldwide. The company hopes that its steel making process can provide a solution to the emissions predicament currently facing the steel industry. Electra utilizes industrial scale electrochemical and hydrometallurgical processes to refine high-impurity iron ores to high purity iron, all of which is done at only 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius). Conventional processes that utilize coal furnaces usually require much higher temperatures and thus emissions from these processes are quite high. On the other hand, through its various techniques and methods Electra is able to produce clean iron that has a purity of over 99%. Decarbonizing the steel industry will take time and a lot of work, a key Obstacle to overcome is to find a way to mass-produce clean iron from a variety of ore types, something that Electra believes it can feasibly achieve. The company’s goal is to is to produce millions of tonnes of clean iron by the end of the decade. Learn more about this topic here.
April 22, 2024
Common Food Waste Byproduct Is Found to be Able to Extract Gold
Common Food Waste Byproduct Is Found to be Able to Extract Gold
Researchers from Switzerland recently discovered an extremely cost-effective gold extraction method that involves using a cheesemaking byproduct to extract the rare metal from e-waste. What's more the team at ETH Zurich affirms that in addition to being incredibly cheap, the process is also sustainable and scalable. In fact, Professor Raffaele Mezzenga, a researcher on the project emphasized, "You can't get much more sustainable than that." The magic ingredient that makes this process possible is whey, a common byproduct in the cheesemaking industry. To extract the gold first the e-waste must be soaked in an acid bath, then whey is used to make a sponge, which collects the gold from the acid bath. The process also utilizes high heat to melt the gold particles, forming a nugget in the process. The novel technique has the potential to generate immense value. The team at ETH Zurich demonstrated this potential by extracting a 22- carat nugget, weighing 450 milligrams, from 20 old motherboards. The team ran the numbers and found that the gold collected was about 50 times more valuable than the cost of the extraction process. Professor Mezzenga further noted that “the possibility to scale up and make it commercially profitable [is] very high.” The team also said that this new process is a big improvement over current methods that require the use of toxic chemicals. Learn more about this topic here.
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