Carbon free steel is on its way - Volts with David Roberts

Dippy@beehaw.org to Technology@lemmy.ml – 28 points –
Making carbon-free steel with clean electricity
volts.wtf

This boston company has developed a new process to manufacture steel using zero carbon dioxide and a whole lot of electricity

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Carbon-free steel is just iron

[Edit] nevermind I forgot that that I don't know metallurgy lol

I think they meant the carbon emissions during the production cycle, not the amount of carbon traces in the product

Carbon steel is literally a type of metal. If you write „carbon free steel“ it is not surprising if it confuses people.

Carbon is just the traditional way of removing oxygen from the iron oxide. There are other ways of purifying the iron. And this method cuts away a lot of steps involving multiple processes and a lot of coal. Give the article a read or listen for more info, it's really interesting

At least according to Wikipedia, small amounts of carbon (< 2.14%) in the final alloy are an important component in controlling the ductility, which agrees with what I thought I remembered from materials classes (although I am not a materials scientist). Obviously not using the Bessemer process drastically reduces the amount of carbon necessary, but trace carbon is important.

Thanks for setting me straight! I kinda assumed it was some green washing bs, but the details in the interview are very interesting