What does it mean to "heat treat green"? Between the hype and the cynicism of abilities of "green solutions" to meet climate concerns, there is a robust conversation going on about the real world effects of heat treat technologies and heat treat innovations. In this Technical Tuesday, we'll examine three topics that have been paramount in the discussion over the course of the past year and a half.
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Heat Treating Equipment: Furnaces and Induction Heating
Recently, Solar Atmospheres demonstrated how their new vacuum oil quench furnace is both efficient and safe as well as a "green" alternative to other VOQ methods. Additionally, talk of the greenness of the induction heating process continues to be highly vocalized due to the repeatable and electric method of heating components. Compare these two heat treating equipment technologies below:
Vacuum Oil Quench
"Solar Atmospheres of Western PA announced their newly designed vacuum oil quench furnace (VOQ) has passed startup protocol. There were zero flare and smoke-ups during the quench cycle and the transfer mechanism moved 2000 pound loads with no issues."
Read more: "Western PA Heat Treat Facility VOQ Passes Startup Protocol"
Induction Heating
"Induction heating is a fast, efficient, precise, repeatable, non-contact method for heating metals or other electrically conductive materials."
Read more: "Why Induction Heating Is a Green Technology"
Renewable Energy Combustion
Using renewables in the combustion arena of heat treating is a complex topic: real energy used, efficiency, costs, and time to adjust all factor into the discussion. While there still doesn't seem to be one solution to this problem, individuals and companies are drawing lines in the sand to help them make equipment investment decisions for their heat treat operations now.
Overview of the "Renewables" Question
"Using a broad spectrum of green energy sources, likely generated in a decentralized manner, and with regional focus on infrastructure capabilities such as transportation and storage of energy carriers, seems more plausible than focusing purely on an electricity-based energy system."
Read more: "Future of Heat Treat: Renewable Energy"
Energy Expert Weighs In
"But there is really no easy path to replacing the efficiency, both thermodynamic efficiency and economic efficiency, of high temperature heat (flames) — that’s the nature of processing materials. So then, you’re only option is the current affection for “green hydrogen.” This is a profoundly misplaced aspiration."
Read more: "Heat Treat Radio: Energy’s Bright Future with Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute"
Related: Steel Manufacturing With Hydrogen
Water vapor instead of CO2. A huge part of steelmaking is retrieving the pure iron itself in a blast furnace. But this traditional method of getting iron into its usable form requires a lot of heat and a lot of energy. Alternative options that companies are wrestling with are using electric arc furnace (EAF) mills and replacing CO2 with hydrogen. This is a "fringe" conversation to heat treaters, but it is still relevant as downstream manufacturers engineers.
CO2: BOF and EAF Furnaces
"There are a few shifts that need to happen. We must move away from blast furnace steel making. Every product based on that will create huge amounts of CO2. Electric arc furnace (EAF) mills are running the world."
Read more: "Going Carbon Free: An Interview with H2 Green Steel"
HYBRIT Use of Direct Reduction
"Around 71 per cent of steel produced today comes from an iron-ore-based method. This typically uses a blast furnace at temperatures of around 1,500°C in which carbon, usually coal, is used to remove oxygen and impurities from the ore to make pig iron. The latter is then turned into steel via a basic oxygen furnace whereby oxygen is blown onto the liquid iron to burn unwanted elements."
Read more: "Fringe Friday: Making Steel 'Green'"
New Technology vs. Practical Solutions
"At Cliffs, we don’t want to rely on breakthrough technologies, but rather deal with practical decarbonization options. Our efforts involve the use of the hydrogen contained in natural gas, which is actually a mix of 95% CH4 and 4% C2H6."
Read more: "Green American Steel: The Envy of the World with CEO Lourenco Goncalves"
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