• Venator@lemmy.nz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    13 hours ago

    Don’t most of the contaminants come out as slag? (IDK I’m not an industrial furnace)

    • Aux@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      8 hours ago

      It depends on the contaminant. For example, if iron is polluted with carbon, carbon will dissolve and even react with iron to produce cementite. That’s how iron becomes steel.

      And slag itself results in a metal loss. You can’t drain it off and not waste some of the material you’re recovering.

      Basically there’s no such thing as 100% recovery of recycled material in an industrial setting. You can do it in the lab at astronomical costs, sure, but your local metalworks are not capable of that. But that doesn’t mean we should stop recycling.