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by schwabacher 1096 days ago
Is iron a potential replacement for coal in steel and cement production?
3 comments

it could be, but like other posters have mentioned, it takes a lot of energy to mine and refine the iron so it'd be in a usable state.

I think it's easiest to think of iron as another energy storage medium that could ease the peaks of renewable energy, by taking excess renewable energy to generate the iron, and oxidizing the iron for energy generation during peak demand periods with low renewable generation

It's like hydrogen in that way.

Making steel from ore using iron seems a bit weird. If you already have a method to reduce the oxide, why not use it on the ore?
Steel in principle is iron + carbon.