Find an environmentally friendly metallurgical method

A group of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) have found a new way to remove iron from ore but still limit CO ₂ emissions.

This new metallurgical method has been published in the recent issue of Nature.

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According to the authors of the study, the new method is essentially molten oxide electrolyte (MOE) , which allows to significantly simplify the process of extracting iron from ore and significantly reducing energy consumption so it is assessed as an environmentally friendly metallurgical method when limiting CO ₂ emissions causing a greenhouse effect.

Iron is a major component of steel. According to the conventional metallurgical method, iron is separated from ore by melting ore so it requires a lot of heat and produces a lot of CO2.

With the MOE electrolytic method, scientists develop positive electrodes, especially from chromium, to handle high temperatures and corrosion of electrical currents.

Previously there have been attempts to extract iron by electrolysis using positive electrodes from cheap iri di.

Derek Fray, an expert with the Metallurgy Department at Cambridge University, said that from this new metallurgical method, a large test reactor should be designed and the authors should continue to develop this technique before put into wide application.

In 2011, the world produced nearly one billion tons of iron, generating 5% of global CO2 emissions.