Renewable-based carbon black was produced using pyrolysis oil derived from pine and spruce stem wood as feedstock in a continuous, high-temperature spray process.
The direct combustion
of recyclable metals has the potential to
become a zero-carbon energy production alternative, much needed to
alleviate the effects of global climate change caused by the increased
emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2. In this work, we show
that the emission of CO2 is insignificant during the combustion
of pulverized sponge iron compared to that of pulverized coal combustion.
The emissions of the other harmful pollutants NO
x
and SO2 were 25 and over 30 times lower, respectively,
than in the case of pulverized coal combustion. Furthermore, 96 wt
% of the solid combustion products consisted of micrometer-sized,
solid or hollow hematite (α-Fe2O3) spheres.
The remaining 4 wt % of products was maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles. According to thermodynamic calculations,
this product composition implies near-complete combustion, with a
conversion above 98%. The results presented in this work strongly
suggest that sponge iron is a clean energy carrier and may become
a substitute to pulverized coal as a fuel in existing or newly designed
industrial systems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.