From: terrell.michael.a@gmail.com   
      
   On Thursday, January 16, 2020 at 1:54:51 PM UTC-5, default wrote:   
   > On Thu, 16 Jan 2020 10:37:25 -0800 (PST), Michael Terrell wrote:   
   >    
   > >On Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 10:55:52 AM UTC-5, amdx wrote:   
   > >>    
   > >>   Yes, the only increase my admittedly short search found was W. Virginia   
   > >> where jobs increased 12.7% during 2017 and 2018. The problem, coal is    
   > >> fighting the low cost of natural gas because of the increase in fracking.   
   > >   
   > >   
   > >   Coal is still needed to manufacture steel. Both to make Coke, and to add   
   carbon to the iron ore. I grew up in a steel town. Long trains of open topped   
   cars deliver coal, around the clock. They are dumped from the bottom as they   
   pass over a huge    
   hopper, to be delivered to one of the piles.   
   > >   
   > >They had piles that were hundreds of feet high, since they kept more than a   
   30 day supply on site, in case of strikes or mining problems. Across the   
   highway is an Owygen reduction plant where air was compressed to liquid, and   
   the various gasses are    
   boiled off. The Nitrogen goes to making fertilizer. The oxygen has three   
   markets, but there is a pipleline directly to the furnaces to make steel. The   
   rest was sold for medical or welding. The rarer gasses were sold to various   
   industries. Everything from    
   Helium, up.   
   >    
   > I don't know if it is necessary to make steel.  I remember a   
   > documentary about steel recycling where they were using carbon arc   
   > furnaces to melt and make steel from ferrous waste.   
      
      Do you have any idea how much more is needed every year? Remelt couldn't   
   begin to supply enough.   
      
      Would you trust a bridge bout of cheap remelt? Do you remember the crap   
   Japanese steel in the '60s? It was all remelt. How about Rebar? It is so low   
   grade that they don't specify what they remelt. It is old wire, scrap iron and   
   old machine tools.    
   Things that they won't use, anywhere else. I've seen imported steel that had   
   large, used ball bearings embedded in the sheet. Try working with that!   
      
       
   > They mentioned that they had a relatively small window where they   
   > could source cheap off-peak electricity from the grid, but the energy   
   > to melt it was electrical. (except for the graphite electrodes)   
   >    
   > Of course that may just be some small mill turning  out ingots of   
   > "boutique" (special purpose) steel.   
      
      
      I'm not talking a small operation. It runs full tilt, 24/7. I'll bet the   
   motors on the hot strip, and at the cranes use more electricity than one of   
   those remelt companies. In fact, there is a peak shaving power plant that can   
   power the entire mill,    
   during major outages. It uses three large GE Jet engines. It can feed the grid   
   for peak shaving, or feed only the mill while an entire town is dark.   
       
   > One other interesting aspect is that they'd take samples of the steel   
   > to a lab then send a list of additives to the floor to be added to the   
   > molten metal.  Some of the chemicals were thrown in by the bag-full,   
   > bag and all.   
      
      
      What's so interesting? A friend of mine retired from that company as an   
   Analytic Chemist who ran test on samples from every run This company developed   
   Aluminized Stainless for Catalytic Converters. They made the special steel   
   used by Aeronca Aerospace    
   for the honeycomb steel heat shields for the early Space Program. They   
   manufacture steel for cars and appliances, along with their prefab steel   
   buildings. All different grades, thicknesses and processes.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)