Water in the steel making process.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Something that has always interested me in regards to steel production is the use of water in the processes. How much and how it is used.

Could a waterless steel manufacturing process be made? I know nowadays there are non-water methods of tempering and heat treatment, such as cryogenics and liquid air such as nitrogen and other mediums. Oil has been used for a long time, too.

Here are some articles I found:

https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/1330h/report.pdf

http://ispatguru.com/water-used-in-stee ... its-types/

Nikola Tesla speculated in the early 1900s AD that eventually it may be possible to have an "electrolytic steel smelting system" that processes iron ore into finished iron and steel products without the use of heat; similiar to what we see in biology, such as how shelled animals precipitate and build their shells using enzymes and the like. He said this would make steel production more efficient energy-wise.

[demoncase]

Could a waterless steel manufacturing process be made?

Of course it could!....But for what purpose?

Mass production always goes for the most simple and cost effective method of delivering product- As steel is a manufactured feed stock for the consumer industry, costs have to be paired to the bone or you price yourself out of the market.
Start consuming huge amounts of a more expensive coolant....and you better have a demonstrable improvement in some aspect of your product.

Water is cheap- even free if my plant is next to a river.
it's stable over time and exposure to oxygen, non-toxic, easy to store, durable and behaves in a very easy to predict fashion across between -100 an +100oC
-It also has a very high specific heat capacity for unit cost meaning it's great for cooling.
-It's an amphoteric (it can act like an acid and an alkali when needed by a given reaction) and is a highly polar solvent for a wide range of other materials. I can even use it as an emulsion for non-polar materials (like oils) to expand it's usable temperature range as a coolant.
-It's even reasonably conductive of electric current which can be useful- and I can make it very conductive by dissolving cheap salt into it to make brine
-It's also 100% recyclable.
-It needs no special equipment to manage a spillage.

Compare that to any mineral oils, synthetic oils or inert gasses- they can do some of the above better than water- but not all and not without some major downsides.

The closest is Nitrogen- and it's a total pain to deal with compared to humble H2O.

We use water where water is the best for the job.