Iron fuel shows its mettle
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Iron fuel shows its mettle
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Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#2Doesn't this seem like we are just going to use up iron supplies.
Iron would then become a used up commodity and drive up prices.
Just like when Corn was used for ethanol, the side effect was driving up corn prices, and raising food prices.
This could use up Iron, and then impact a ton of stuff.
EDIT
Missed this: "This can later be reduced—that is, the oxygen can be stripped away—back into iron powder. “You can think of iron fuel as a clean, recyclable coal,” says Bergthorson."
So guess it's all good.
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#3Doesn't this seem like we are just going to use up iron supplies. Iron would then become a used up commodity and drive up prices. Just like when Corn was used for ethanol, the side effect was driving up corn prices, and raising food prices. This could use up Iron, and then impact a ton of stuff. EDIT Missed this: "This can later be reduced—that is, the oxygen can be stripped away—back into iron powder. “You can think…
The iron mining biz would probably expand, pushing prices down.
Iron is just everywhere. I can go out in my back yard and find rocks which contain ore.
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#4Is iron a potential replacement for coal in steel and cement production?
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#5I used to be very excited about the iron cycle when the first news about that brewery appeared. But these days I wonder how useful it really is, as an energy store? Won't it start oxidating at room temperature unless kept in inert atmosphere? And if that's a requirement, is it really that much less trouble than plain H2 or some gaseous or liquid intermediate?
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#6Iron is not widely available in nature as a ready-to-use element, it must be processed into elemental iron, which takes a lot of energy as input. Therefore this can't be really considered as fuel, more like energy storage. You still need fossil fuels or nuclear power to turn iron ores into iron, then you have iron available for the process described in the article.
I'm not criticizing the process, but it's not accurate to call it "fuel" like it could be the solution to replacing fossil fuels.
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#7I used to be very excited about the iron cycle when the first news about that brewery appeared. But these days I wonder how useful it really is, as an energy store? Won't it start oxidating at room temperature unless kept in inert atmosphere? And if that's a requirement, is it really that much less trouble than plain H2 or some gaseous or liquid intermediate?
The trouble level for H2 is reasonably high, so it could very well be less.
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#8I used to be very excited about the iron cycle when the first news about that brewery appeared. But these days I wonder how useful it really is, as an energy store? Won't it start oxidating at room temperature unless kept in inert atmosphere? And if that's a requirement, is it really that much less trouble than plain H2 or some gaseous or liquid intermediate?
Yes, and gasoline will evaporate, natural gas will disperse, etc. It's kept in a container until they burn it.
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#9Doesn't this seem like we are just going to use up iron supplies. Iron would then become a used up commodity and drive up prices. Just like when Corn was used for ethanol, the side effect was driving up corn prices, and raising food prices. This could use up Iron, and then impact a ton of stuff. EDIT Missed this: "This can later be reduced—that is, the oxygen can be stripped away—back into iron powder. “You can think…
If we have to pick a natural resource to exploit for fuel, iron is a good choice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elem...
Re: Iron fuel shows its mettle
#10Looks like the same thing as Form Energy provides. They are selling plants at MW level (article is about a small brewery at kW level)