Gas and or Electric Blast-Furnaces

311 votes

Introduce Gas and or Electric fueled blast-furnaces. They both exist and are largely used in industry, and it's an interesting alternative of setup. The production could be the same as classic Blast Furnace II, those suggestions could just be recipe once you add a liquid/gas input on those buildings.

Under consideration Suggested by: Rustico (29 Mar, '23) • Upvoted: 15 Apr • Comments: 3

Comments: 3

15 Jun, '23
Alex
I think electric is covered by Arc furnace II but Gas would be a useful expansion.
09 Sep, '23
Clayton
blast furnaces use coke made from coal, you cant make coke from gas
20 Nov, '23
Steel Man
@Clayton, this is actually now untrue. Many companies with blast furnaces are working on switching over to hydrogen injection to significantly reduce the carbon produced, due to the lack of coke being used. The hydrogen reduces the ore via a different mechanism than with carbon monoxide in a standard blast furnace. You are left with water as a byproduct instead of carbon based exhausts.

Reaction: Fe3O4 + 4H2 -> 3Fe + 4H2O

Examples:
https://www.thyssenkrupp-steel.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/thyssenkrupp-steel-concludes-first-test-phase-successfully.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371095965_Impact_of_Hydrogenous_Gas_Injection_on_the_Blast_Furnace_Process_A_Numerical_Investigation

I know the company I work for is preparing to run hydrogen in our blast furnaces as well. We are getting everything piped, and the hydrogen production plants are being built

To your second point, yes the electricity driven version of smelting would be the Arc Furnace.
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