Clean and iron money5/17/2023 ![]() ![]() So what happens to all that rust? This is where things get clever, because the iron isn’t just a fuel that’s consumed- it’s energy storage that can be recharged. Since electricity can’t efficiently produce the kind of heat required for many industrial applications (brewing included), iron powder is a viable zero-carbon option, with only rust left over. Researchers from TU Eindhoven have been developing iron powder as a practical fuel for the past several years, and last month they installed an iron powder heating system at a brewery in the Netherlands, which is turning all that stored up energy into beer. I t probably won’t heat your house either. But it could be ideal for industry, which is where it’s being tested right now. It might not be suitable for powering your car, in other words. ![]() Although its specific energy is a relatively poor 1.4 kWh/kg, meaning that for a given amount of energy, iron powder will take up a little bit less space than gasoline but it’ll be almost ten times heavier. Iron has an energy density of about 11.3 kWh/L, which is better than gasoline. And that’s the only byproduct of the entire business-in goes the iron powder, and out comes energy in the form of heat and rust powder. The nice thing about rust is that it’s a solid which can be captured post-combustion. When you burn this mixture, you’re oxidizing the iron. Whereas a carbon fuel oxidizes into CO 2, an iron fuel oxidizes into Fe 2O 3, which is just rust. While setting fire to an iron ingot is probably more trouble than it’s worth, fine iron powder mixed with air is highly combustible. ![]() Simple question: What if we could curb this whole fossil fuel-fed climate change nightmare and burn something else as an energy source instead? As a bonus, what if that something else is one of the most common elements on Earth? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |