Re:Making steel without emitting CO2
by ZeroGravitas on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @06:18AM
(#39287158)
I saw an interesting comment about EV mining equipment recently.
The manufacturer initially sold them as reducing CO2 globally, and also reducing harmful emissions in the mine itself, and saving fuel and fuel transport costs to remote mines.
The miners reported that the key benefit was actually that the machine spit out a lot less heat in a confined space undeground. Previously they'd need to spend an hour using AC to reduce the temperature to a level that humans could cope with before sending workers in for the next stage. With the EVs that time was saved and work could begin immediately.
The manufacturer initially sold them as reducing CO2 globally, and also reducing harmful emissions in the mine itself, and saving fuel and fuel transport costs to remote mines.
The miners reported that the key benefit was actually that the machine spit out a lot less heat in a confined space undeground. Previously they'd need to spend an hour using AC to reduce the temperature to a level that humans could cope with before sending workers in for the next stage. With the EVs that time was saved and work could begin immediately.