8. 8 The minimum production rate requirement is 1.25 kg/sec of iron or about 1.39 kg/sec minimum rate if a 90% duty cycle is assumed. Electrical energy input is taken as the requirement for water electrolysis in the recycle systems. It is roughly ~.29xl0 7 Joules/kg of iron produced or 4.57xl0 4 kW for this system. At the level of this analysis, the other energy flows (waste and process heat) are taken into account by budgeting radiator and solar furnace masses into the appropriate equipment masses at 8 and 0.5 kg/m 2 respectively (8.2). Where possible,equipment masses have been taken directly from the literature. Because most terrestrial equipment in fixed installations is based on cast iron and concrete tecpnology with no consideration given to mass reduction, the following mass. estimates are conservative. Terrestrially supplied process chemicals (carbon and hydrogen) are similarly accounted for by inclusion in the masses of associated equipment. Mass estimates are: Conventional equipment: Grinders for rock (8.3) 181 tons Fluidized bed reactor (8.4) 56 tons Thermal decomposition unit (8.4) 111 tons Estimated from design work on solar furnaces (8.1): Distillation unit 209 tons Solar reduction reactors 139 tons The remainder was guessed to be 139 tons for a system mass of 835 tons. (Final estimates were linearly scaled up from initial work on a 1 kg/sec system.) Assuming 10 kg/kW electric power plant mass ratio yields 457 tons for the power plant. The total processing system mass is thus 1292 metric tons at the beginning of construction. Fully automated terrestrial chemical plants typically require little labor. An estimate of labor required for this system is 6 persons per shift.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==