After the reactor is tried out for that product, the team plans to convert it for use in steelmaking sometime early next year, Broek says.

First, it will be used with carbon anodes to produce ferroalloys, high-value metals that can be produced in an electrolysis process similar to the one used to make steel. Molten iron gathers at the bottom of the reactor, and oxygen gas is emitted instead of carbon dioxide.īecause the impurities largely stay out of the reaction, the MOE process can handle low-quality iron ore, which could be a major benefit of the technology, Carneiro says.Ĭonstruction on the pilot reactor is almost finished, and tests are slated to begin in August. In addition to heating things up, electricity drives the oxygen-removing chemical reactions. The electricity heats the cell up to about 1,600 ☌ (nearly 3,000 ☏), melting everything into a hot oxide soup. Instead of using carbon to remove oxygen, the process relies on electricity, which runs through a cell filled with a mixture of dissolved iron oxides along with other oxides and materials. The carbon and oxygen are then released together as carbon dioxide.īoston Metal’s solution is an entirely new approach, called molten oxide electrolysis (MOE).

The reaction pulls out the oxygen, leaving behind liquid iron. 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. Fossil fuels are essential to today’s steel production.

Deep and Dirty by Douglas Dell