MIT materials science guru Donald Sadoway has developed a way to extract iron from iron ore using electricity instead of the carbon intensive process of smelting.

The amount of electricity needed for this is staggering, but if it came from a renewable source, that could account for a billion nega-tons of CO₂ emissions every year.

The technology will be ready for wide-scale implementation in 10-15 years, and if current trends continue, there will be enough non-carbon energy to support it!

via: NewScientist

I'm curious how much iron is produced from recycling scrap versus smelting ore.

I don't know the numbers, perhaps someone here can enlighten me but, I got the impression that most iron in circulation in the economy these days is mostly from scrap, not ore.

If this process could be adapted to reduce the carbon emissions of scrap recycling, that would be great!

Posted by: Pace Arko on September 8, 2006 12:17 AM

Perhaps this would make more sense on the moon or in space?

Posted by: Andrew Mancey on September 11, 2006 10:32 AM