A friend was telling me about a system that burns old tires to generate
electricity. The steel belts (stainless steel) which are a problem for
people trying to recycle the rubber into new tires, burn up too.
Since tires are a rather dirty fuel, scrubbers are used so I would
suppose that the fly ash includes oxides of chromium an nickel
in addition to iron and sulfur compounds. Iron is pretty cheap
but I was wondering if it might not be worthwhile to try recovering
the chromium and nickel.
How would one reduce the metal from the oxides economically?
Would an electrowhateveritscalled process such as that used
to produce aluminum from bauxite be feasible?
Oh, does anybody here know what alloy is used for the steel belts?
I would guess something like 302 or 304, or other inexpensive
18/8.
- posted 15 years ago