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Using plasma technology to recycle CO₂ from steelmaking

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Plasma is all around us, comprising 99% of the visible universe, including the stars at night and the branch of lightning we see cracking open the sky. Researchers are using the power of this superheated matter for everything from making computer chips to healing wounds. And in Belgium, three companies are collaborating on a world-first technology: a plasma reactor that turns captured CO₂ into carbon monoxide (CO) for steel and chemical production. The process holds promise for decarbonizing steelmaking. The role of CO₂ recycling The steel sector creates more CO₂ than any other heavy industry and is considered challenging to electrify. This is because traditional steelmaking in blast furnaces uses coal as both a source of heat and, in the chemical process, as a reductant for converting iron ore to elemental (‘pig’) iron. While the sector looks to future-proof with technologies such as electric arc furnaces and direct reduction of iron ore with hydrogen, it is looking to CO₂ capture, ut...
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NASA, Global Astronomers Await Rare Nova Explosion

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A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis. The red giant is a large sphere in shades of red, orange, and white, with the side facing the white dwarf the lightest shades. The white dwarf is hidden in a bright glow of white and yellows, which represent an accretion disk around the star. A stream of material, shown as a diffuse cloud of red, flows from the red giant to the white dwarf. When the red giant moves behind the white dwarf, a nova explosion on the white dwarf ignites, creating a ball of ejected nova material shown in pale orange. After the fog of material clears, a small white spot remains, indicating that the white dwarf has survived the explosion. Around the world this summer, professional and amateur astronomers alike will be fixed on one small constellation deep in the night sky. But it’s not the seven stars of Corona Borealis, the “Northern Crown,” that have sparked such fascination. It’s a dark spot among th...
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IIT-M researchers show that natural minerals are broken by water droplets to form nanoparticles

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Chennai: Researchers with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT- M) have shown that common minerals can be broken by water microdroplets to make corresponding nanoparticles, making it the first research paper from the institute to be publis... Atmospheric water droplets such as clouds and fog can be charged due to ionic species present in them and by contact electrification. Disintegration of minerals make nascent surfaces and on such surfaces, different types of catalysis may occur, formi... The researchers says that ‘microdroplet showers’ composed of nanoparticles and molecules falling on Earth may be of importance to the chemical and biological evolution of the planet. Science is considered to be one of the world’s top academic journals with articles that consistently rank among the most cited in the world. The research was led by Prof. Thalappil Pradeep, institute Professor, Chemistry Department, IIT Madras, a Padma Shri awardee, and B K Spoorthi, the first author of the ...
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