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An electric arc furnace is like a giant, high-tech kitchen appliance for melting metal. Imagine a huge, robust pot where you throw in scrap metal, like old cars or broken appliances. Instead of using gas or coal to heat things up, this “pot” uses powerful electric arcs — think of them as supercharged lightning bolts. These arcs create intense heat, enough to melt the scrap metal into liquid form.
Enter limestone, the ubiquitous soft, shallowly buried remains of long vanished seabeds. In an electric arc furnace (EAF), limestone is a multi-purpose helper. When scrap metal melts down, it often brings along unwanted guests like sulfur and phosphorus. Limestone jumps in to bond with these impurities, forming a separate layer called slag that floats to the top, making it easy to skim off…
Read the full article originally published at cleantechnica.com.