“After more than a decade of intensive research in China, a new ironmaking technology is poised to revolutionize the global steel manufacturing industry,” reports the South China Morning Post:
The method involves injecting finely ground iron ore powder into an extremely hot furnace, triggering an ‘explosive chemical reaction’, according to the engineers involved in the project.
The result is a display of bright red, glowing liquid iron droplets that rain down and collect at the bottom of the furnace, forming a stream of high-purity iron that can be directly used for casting or ‘one-step steelmaking’.
Known as flash ironmaking, the method ‘can complete the ironmaking process in just three to six seconds, compared to the five to six hours required by traditional blast furnaces’, wrote the project team led by Professor Zhang Wenhai, an academician of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering, in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nonferrous Metals in November.
This equates to a 3,600-fold or more increase in the speed of ironmaking. The new method also works exceptionally well for low or medium-yield ores that are abundant in China, according to the researchers.
The new production method is also said to be better for the environment, by eliminating the need for coal in the production process.
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