Electrorefining for direct decarburization of molten iron

Recycling iron and steel is critical for environmental sustainability and essential to close material loops in circular economics. A major challenge is to produce high-value products and to control impurities like carbon in the face of stringent consumer requirements and volatile markets. Here, we develop an electrorefining process that directly decarburizes molten iron by imposing an electromotive force between it and a slag electrolyte. Upon anodic polarization, oxide anions from the slag discharge directly on carbon dissolved in molten iron, evolving gaseous carbon monoxide. In a striking departure from conventional practice that highly relies on reaction with solubilized oxygen, here electrorefining achieves decarburization by direct interfacial reaction. We demonstrate that this technique produces ultra-low-carbon steels and recovers silicon as a by-product at the cathode, requiring a low energy input and no reagents. We expect this process to be scalable and integrable with secondary steel mills.

Development of a system for analyzing working postures

In order to assist in the analysis of working postures which might cause lumbago in the field of industrial health, a system was developed for the synchronous recording and analyzing of postures, work content and physiological data. The system is composed of a portable unit for recording 3 channels of goniometers, 1 channel of inclinometer and 1 channel of surface electromyogram, a video camera for recording work content, a host computer and some peripheral devices for analyzing the data from the portable unit and video camera. In this system, postures are automatically classified from data on joint angles and upper body inclination angle by using a discriminant function. The joint angles are measured by the goniometers using rubber optical fibers. The angle of upper body inclination is obtained by the inclinometer using a magnetic resistance sensor. In addition to the work content and video images, the postures and the electromyogram can be analyzed and confirmed by simultaneous display of the data on the host computer screen. Based on the trial use of this system in a work model of manual baggage handling, it was proved useful for evaluating in detail the workload caused by working postures.