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Did You Know...?
...that researchers have figured out a way to make green steel out of the toxic red mud left behind from aluminum production?
Aluminum production creates about 180 million tons of toxic red mud every year. The mud is red because it contains iron, but it is also very alkaline and contains a variety of heavy metals such as chromium.
Storing the mud is expensive and frequently dangerous to nearby communities, because as the mud dries it can turn into toxic dust that gets blown on the wind, or it can corrode the walls of the landfill where it's contained, eventually leaking out in catastrophic fashion.
But now scientists at the Max Planck Institute have developed a process that "could simultaneously solve the waste problem of aluminum production and improve the steel industry's carbon footprint" - using an electric arc furnace to melt the mud and reduce the contained iron oxide to iron using a plasma that contains 10% hydrogen.
"The iron is so pure that it can be processed directly into steel."
The process is also economically viable, and could be a win both for industry and the environment.
Learn more in the full article here.
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