T“Wait for the crackle, crackle and pop” is the warning when three glowing electrodes are dropped into Cardiff’s electric arc furnace, followed by a thunderous boom: a man-made storm inside a giant ceramic-lined cup containing 140 tonnes of rapidly melting steel.
The plant, owned by Spain’s Celsa, melts scrap iron using high-voltage currents at 1,600 degrees Celsius, enough to turn the metal into a liquid, which is then cast, twisted, and crushed into rods that are used to reinforce concrete.
The plant’s one million tonnes of coal per year is used in a variety of projects, from buildings such as Wembley Stadium and the Shard, to infrastructure projects such as the Elizabeth Metro and Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station.
Electric arc furnaces represent the future for other British industries.
Tata Steel, based in Port Talbot, and British Steel, based in Scunthorpe, are both planning to switch from polluting blast furnaces to much greener electric technology, which would cut emissions but mean the loss of thousands of jobs, including 2,800 in South Wales.
Promoting investment
The new Labour government has renegotiated a £500 million subsidy for Indian-owned Tata Steel agreed under the Conservative government and has pledged to cut Britain’s carbon dioxide emissions by around 2%.
Source: www.theguardian.com
