Innovation: Electric shock to coke market
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE MARKET for coal will shrink still further at the completion of a research project to develop a continuous electric smelter for foundries. The project is being undertaken at EA Technology, the research and development organisation owned by the electricity companies. It aims to produce an electricity-powered smelter to replace coke-fired types, writes Nuala Moran.
About one-third of the UK's smelters are already powered by electricity, but the technology is limited to small- batch processing of up to a maximum five tons a batch. After the metal is poured, the slag has to be removed and then the foundry has to wait for about five hours before the next batch is ready.
Foundries that need a steady stream of molten metal for continuous casting use coke-fired smelters. The incentive to replace coke with electricity comes from the Environmental Protection Act, which will force coke-powered smelter operators to limit emissions.
Barry Taylor, of EA Technology, says that while operators of larger smelters producing more than 20 tons an hour will be able to justify the cost of fitting scrubbers, cleaning up emissions from smaller smelters will put 10 to 20 per cent on the cost of the metal they produce.
Unlike the coke smelter, the electric smelter will be closed, which EA Technology says will minimise emissions, even during charging. Using electricity rather than coke will also reduce the levels of other waste products, such as ash.
One of the main problems the design will have to overcome is how to separate the slag that rises to the top of the molten metal from the molten and solid-metal mixture.
EA Technology has completed the first test runs on its prototype smelter. Six of the UK's electricity companies have put money into the pounds 500,000 project, designed to produce a prototype capable of continuously producing two tons of molten iron an hour. The production unit will have a capacity of up to ten tonnes per hour.
Funding has also come from EA Technology's US counterpart, EPRI (the Electric Power Research Institute).
The leading manufacturer of electric melting furnaces, Inductotherm Europe, has been granted the sole licence.
Although the furnace is being designed to melt ferrous scrap, it will be possible to adapt it for other metals, such as aluminium.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments