Can Biocoke Address the Anode CO2 Problem (Owing to Petroleum Coke) for Aluminum Production?

[NNadir]

7. Well, yes, there are electrolytic methods but...

...overwhelmingly the world's electricity is derived from dangerous fossil fuels. The proportion so obtained is rising, not falling, because of the disastrous marketing that has squandered the future on what are called "investments" in (so called), "renewable energy."

As the demand for electricity is rising, it is leading to thermodynamic nightmares like, say, electric cars.

Now, the two electrolytic metals in mass production today, aluminum and (to the extent that the carbothermic process is avoided) magnesium have both been evaluated as energy storage devices to generate hydrogen for another dumb idea, hydrogen cars.

But batteries are also thermodynamic nightmares, including hydrogen based batteries, fuel cells using aluminum, magnesium and other stuff like borohydrides as hydrogen sources.

Now, as it happens, I am a fan of electrolytic metallurgy, because I believe electricity can be made cleanly, particularly at high temperatures. Non-electrolytic metallurgy even though it may have certain thermodynamic and cost advantages is uniformly dirty. I believe that heat flows from devices like Hall process smelters might be optimized to recover additional energy.

I've recently had occasion to tour the abandoned - or re-purposed, as something of a tourist site - Bethlehem steel plant. The scale is astounding, particular if you consider that that thing operated 24/7, 365 days a year, coupled to a coking plant burning coal.

It makes one think.

I was told by the head of a materials science department at a major university that the United States actually makes more steel than it ever did, but that primarily it is specialty steel. That too boggles the mind.

All that steel is involved with coal, and to the extent that even more common elements than iron can replace steel, that's a good thing. In my addendum in this thread, I even suggested that metal processing might be converted to a carbon sequestration system.

Carbides, as I'm learning, are beautiful things, so long as they don't involve dangerous fossil fuels. It is possible to reduce carbon dioxide, and that, I think, is the only hope for the future.