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Flaming cauldrons of molten metal have long been the primary venues for steel production. But blast furnaces require a lot of coal, which means greenhouse gas pollution. In fact, worldwide, steelmaking is responsible for 5 percent of annual emissions.
熊熊燃燒的溶化金屬的熔爐一直是出產(chǎn)鋼產(chǎn)品的主要場(chǎng)所。但高爐需要燃燒大量的煤炭，這意味著溫室氣體污染。實(shí)際上，每年煉鋼所排放的溫室氣體占全世界總量的5%。
But scientists working on a way to harvest oxygen from the iron oxide in lunar soil for future moon bases realized that they happened on a better way to make steel here on Earth. The trick? Produce steel the way we make aluminum: use electricity rather than flame.
然而科學(xué)家們正致力于研究一種從月球土壤中的氧化鐵里獲得氧氣的方法。因?yàn)槲磥?lái)月球基地意識(shí)到在地球上以這種方式煉鋼更好。什么竅門？用制鋁的方式煉鋼：利用電能而不是火。
To make steel the old-fashioned way, you blast iron ore with heat and purify the resulting molten metal with oxygen. The process removes carbon from the steel, but produces carbon dioxide. Making a ton of steel releases roughly two tons of CO2—and the world uses a lot of steel in cars, buildings and other infrastructure.
舊的煉鋼方式是加熱鐵礦石使其燃燒，然后用氧氣凈化溶化的鐵水。這道程序會(huì)將碳從鋼中去除，但這樣會(huì)產(chǎn)生二氧化碳。每生產(chǎn)一噸鋼材大約要釋放兩噸二氧化碳——世界上生產(chǎn)汽車，建造房屋和其他基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施都需要大量鋼材。
The new method involves passing a current through a molten pool of iron oxide, which drives off the originally sought-after oxygen. The by-product is steel. And depending on the source of the electricity, the process could be nearly CO2-free. Which, as far as the atmosphere is concerned, would be very cool.
新方法的步驟則包括向熔爐里的氧化鐵通電，從而釋放原本就炙手可熱的氧氣。副產(chǎn)品則是鋼。如果采用適當(dāng)?shù)姆绞桨l(fā)電，這個(gè)過(guò)程幾乎不會(huì)排出一點(diǎn)二氧化碳。對(duì)于大氣而言也是有利的。
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