Systems and methods for steel production
AssigneePathfinder Holdings Corp.
InventorJames Maurice Small
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments to a method for steel production, the method comprising forming a hydrogen and a carbon from a natural gas using thermal plasma electrolysis; reducing iron ore fines with the H2 to form an iron briquette; melting the briquette iron from the furnace to form a melted iron and melted non-metallic slag; separating the non-metallic slag from the melted iron in the furnace; combining the carbon and the melted iron in a furnace to form a carbon black and iron mixture; and alloying the melted iron with the carbon black to form a steel.
Claims8
A system for producing a steel, the system comprising:
- a thermal plasma electrolysis system configured to generate a H2 and a carbon from a natural gas;
- a hydrogen direct reduction system configured to receive the H2 generated from the thermal plasma electrolysis system and to reduce iron ore fines with the H2 to produce an iron briquette;
- and
- a furnace configured to:
- receive and melt the iron briquette and to form a melted iron and non-metallic slag;
- separate the non-metallic slag from the melted iron;
- and
- alloy the melted iron with a portion of the carbon to form the steel,
- wherein the system requires from about 1,000 kilowatt hours to about 2,000 kilowatt hours of electricity to generate about 1 metric ton of steel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.