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History of the steel industry (1850–1970)
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For the history of earlier processes, see History of ferrous metallurgy. For recent history, see History of the steel industry (1970–present).
The history of the modern steel industry began in the late 1850s, but since then, steel has been basic to the world's industrial economy. This article is intended only to address the business, economic and social dimensions of the industry, since the bulk production of steel began as a result of Henry Bessemer's development of the Bessemer converter in 1857. Previously steel was very expensive to produce and only used in small expensive items such as knives, swords and armour.
Contents
[hide]
1 Technology
2 Britain
2.1 19th century
2.2 20th century
3 Australia
4 Germany
5 France
6 Italy
7 United States
7.1 Carnegie
7.2 US Steel
7.3 Bethlehem Steel
7.4 Republic Steel
7.5 Unions
7.6 Apogee and decline
7.7 Legacy
8 Asia
8.1 Japan
8.2 India
8.3 China
9 See also
10 References
11 Bibliography
11.1 Britain
11.2 United States
11.2.1 U.S. Labor
11.3 Primary sources
Technology[edit]
Steel is an alloy composed of between 0.2% and 2.0% carbon, and the balance of iron. From prehistory through the creation of the blast furnace, iron was produced from iron ore as wrought iron, 100% Fe, and the process of making steel involved adding carbon to the iron, usually via serendipity in the forge or via the cementation process. The introduction of the blast furnace reversed the problem. A blast furnace produces pig iron, which is an alloy of approximately 90% iron and 10% carbon. If the process of steelmaking begins with pig iron instead of wrought iron, the challenge is to remove a sufficient amount of carbon to get it to the 0.2 to 2 percent for steel.
Before about 1860 steel was an expensive product, made in small quantities and used mostly for swords, tools and cutlery; all large metal structures were made of wrought or cast iron. Steelmaking was centered in Sheffield, Britain, which supplied the European and the American markets. The introduction of cheap steel was due to the Bessemer and the open hearth processes, two technological advances made in England. In the Bessemer process, molten pig iron is converted to steel by blowing air through it after it was removed from the furnace. The air blast burned the carbon and silicon out of the pig iron, releasing heat and causing the temperature of the molten metal to rise. Henry Bessemer demonstrated the process in 1856 and had a successful operation going by 1864. By 1870 Bessemer steel was widely used for ship plate. By the 1850s, the speed, weight, and quantity of railway traffic was limited by the strength of the wrought iron rails in use. The solution was to turn to steel rails, which the Bessemer process made competitive in price. Experience quickly proved steel had much greater strength and durability and could handle the increasingly heavy and faster engines and cars.[1]
After 1890 the Bessemer process was gradually supplanted by open-hearth steelmaking and by the middle of the 20th century was no longer in use.[2] The open-hearth process originated in the 1860s in Germany and France. The usual open-hearth process used pig iron, ore, and scrap, and became known as the Siemens-Martin process. Its process allowed closer control over the composition of the steel; also, a substantial quantity of scrap could be included in the charge. The crucible process remained important for making high-quality alloy steel into the 20th century.[3] By 1900 the electric arc furnace was adapted to steelmaking and by the 1920s, the falling cost of electricity allowed it to largely supplant the crucible process for specialty steels.[4]
Britain[edit]
19th century[edit]
Britain led the world's Industrial Revolution with its early commitment to coal mining, steam power, textile mills, machinery, railways, and shipbuilding. Britain's demand for iron and steel, combined with ample capital and energetic entrepreneurs, made it the world leader in the first half of the 19th century.
In 1875, Britain accounted for 47% of world production of pig iron and almost 40% of steel. 40% of British output was exported to the U.S., which was rapidly building its rail and industrial infrastructure. Two decades later in 1896, however, the British share of world production had plunged to 29% for pig iron and 22.5% for steel, and little was sent to the U.S. The U.S. was now the world leader and Germany was catching up to Britain. Britain had lost its American market, and was losing its role elsewhere; indeed American products were now underselling British steel in Britain.[5]
The growth of pig iron output was dramatic. Britain went from 1.3 million tons in 1840 to 6.7 million in 1870 and 10.4 in 1913. The US started from a lower base, but grew faster; from 0.3 million tons in 1840, to 1.7 million in 1870, and 31.5 million in 1913. Germany went from 0.2 million tons in 1859 to 1.6 in 1871 and 19.3 in 1913. France, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, combined, went from 2.2 million tons in 1870 to 14.1 million tons in 1913, on the eve of the World War. During the war the demand for artillery shells and other supplies caused a spurt in output and a diversion to military uses.
20th century[edit]
Abé (1996) explores the record of iron and steel firms in Victorian England by analyzing Bolckow Vaughan & Company. It was wedded for too long to obsolescent technology and was a very late adopter of the open hearth furnace method. Abé concludes that the firm—and the British steel industry—suffered from a failure of entrepreneurship and planning.[6]
Blair (1997) explores the history of the British Steel industry since the Second World War to evaluate the impact of government intervention in a market economy. Entrepreneurship was lacking in the 1940s; the government could not persuade the industry to upgrade its plants. For generations the industry had followed a patchwork growth pattern which proved inefficient in the face of world competition. In 1946 the first steel development plan was put into practice with the aim of increasing capacity; the "Iron and Steel Act of 1949" meant nationalization of the industry. However, the reforms were dismantled by the Conservative governments in the 1950s. In 1967, under Labour Party control again, the industry was again nationalized. But by then twenty years of political manipulation had left companies such as British Steel with serious problems: a complacency with existing equipment, plants operating under capacity (low efficiency), poor quality assets, outdated technology, government price controls, higher coal and oil costs, lack of funds for capital improvement, and increasing world market competition. By the 1970s the Labour government had its main goal to keep employment high in the declining industry. Since British Steel was a main employer in depressed regions, it had kept many mills and facilities that were operating at a loss. In the 1980s, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher re-privatized BSC as British Steel.
Australia[edit]
In Australia, Broken Hill Proprietary Company ventured into steel manufacturing in 1915, with its operations based primarily in Newcastle, New South Wales. The decision to move from mining ore to open a steelworks at Newcastle was due to the technical limitations in recovering value from mining the 'lower-lying sulphide ores'.[7] The discovery of Iron Knob and Iron Monarch near the western shore of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia combined with the development by the BHP metallurgist, A. D. Carmichael, of a technique for 'separating zinc sulphides from the accompanying earth and rock' led BHP 'to implement the startlingly simple and cheap process for liberating vast amounts of valuable metals out of sulphide ores, including huge heaps of tailings and slimes up to' 40 ft (12 m) high.[8] The inefficiencies of what was, by global standards, a small steel operation in Newcastle finally caught up with the company and the Newcastle operations were closed in 1999.[9] The 'long products' side of the steel business was spun off to form OneSteel in 2000.[10]
Germany[edit]
The Ruhr Valley provided an excellent location for the German iron and steel industry because of the availability of raw materials, coal, transport, a skilled labor force, nearby markets, and an entrepreneurial spirit that led to the creation of many firms, often in close conjunction with coal mines. By 1850 the Ruhr had 50 iron works with 2,813 full-time employees. The first modern furnace was built in 1849. The creation of the German Empire in 1870 gave further impetus to rapid growth, as Germany started to catch up with Britain. From 1880 to World War I, the industry of the Ruhr area consisted of numerous enterprises, each working on a separate level of production. Mixed enterprises could unite all levels of production through vertical integration, thus lowering production costs. Technological progress brought new advantages as well. These developments set the stage for the creation of combined business concerns.[11]
The leading firm was Friedrich Krupp AG run by the Krupp family.[12][13] Many diverse, large-scale family firms such as Krupp's reorganized in order to adapt to the changing conditions and meet the economic depression of the 1870s, which reduced the earnings in the German iron and steel industry. Krupp reformed his accounting system to better manage his growing empire, adding a specialized bureau of calculation as well as a bureau for the control of times and wages. The rival firm GHH quickly followed,[14] as did Thyssen AG, which had been founded by August Thyssen in 1867. Germany became Europe's leading steel-producing nation in the late 19th century, thanks in large part to the protection from American and British competition afforded by tariffs and cartels.[15]
By 1913 American and German exports dominated the world steel market, and Britain slipped to third place.[16] German steel production grew explosively from 1 million metric tons in 1885 to 10 million in 1905 and peaked at 19 million in 1918. In the 1920s Germany produced about 15 million tons, but output plunged to 6 million in 1933. Under the Nazis, steel output peaked at 22 million tons in 1940, then dipped to 18 million in 1944 under Allied bombing.[17] The merger of four major firms into the German Steel Trust (Vereinigte Stahlwerke) in 1926 was modeled on the U.S. Steel corporation in the U.S. The goal was to move beyond the limitations of the old cartel system by incorporating advances simultaneously inside a single corporation. The new company emphasized rationalization of management structures and modernization of the technology; it employed a multi-divisional structure and used return on investment as its measure of success.[18] It represented the "Americanization" of the German steel industry because its internal structure, management methods, use of technology, and emphasis on mass production. The chief difference was that consumer capitalism as an industrial strategy did not seem plausible to German steel industrialists.[19]
In iron and steel and other industries, German firms avoided cut-throat competition and instead relied on trade associations. Germany was a world leader because of its prevailing "corporatist mentality", its strong bureaucratic tradition, and the encouragement of the government. These associations regulated competition and allowed small firms to function in the shadow of much larger companies.[20]
With the need to rebuild the bombed-out infrastructure after the Second World War, Marshall Plan (1948–51) enabled West Germany to rebuild and modernize its mills. It produced 3 million of steel in 1947, 12 million in 1950, 34 million in 1960 and 46 million in 1970. East Germany produced about a 10th as much.[21]
France[edit]
The French iron industry lagged behind the United Kingdom and Belgium in the early 19th century, and after 1850 also lagged behind Germany and Luxembourg. Its industry comprised too many small, inefficient firms.[22] 20th century growth was not robust, due more to traditional social and economic attitudes than to inherent geographic, population, or resource factors. Despite a high national income level, the French steel industry remained laggard.[23] The industry was based on large supplies of coal and iron ore, and was dispersed across the country. The greatest output came in 1929, at 10.4 million metric tons.[24] The industry suffered sharply during the Great Depression and the World War II. Prosperity returned by mid-1950s, but profits came largely from strong domestic demand rather than competitive capacity. Late modernization delayed the development of powerful unions and collective bargaining.[25]
Italy[edit]
Stassano furnace exhibited at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci", Milan
In Italy a shortage of coal led the steel industry to specialize in the use of hydro-electrical energy, exploiting ideas pioneered by Ernesto Stassano from 1898 (Stassano furnace). Despite periods of innovation (1907–14), growth (1915–18), and consolidation (1918–22), early expectations were only partly realized. Steel output in the 1920s and 1930s averaged about 2.1 million metric tons. Per capita consumption was much lower than the average of Western Europe.[26] Electrical processes were an important substitute, yet did not improve competitiveness or reduce prices. Instead, they reinforced the dualism of the sector and initiated a vicious circle that prevented market expansion.[27] Italy modernized its industry in the 1950s and 1960s and it grew rapidly, becoming second only to West Germany in the 1970s. Strong labour unions kept employment levels high. Troubles multiplied after 1980, however, as foreign competition became stiffer. In 1980 the largest producer Nuova Italsider lost 746 billion lira in its inefficient operations.[28]
United States[edit]
Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was the #2 American producer but after 1970 ignored new technology and imports; it went bankrupt in 2001.
From 1875 to 1920 American steel production grew from 380,000 tons to 60 million tons annually, making the U.S. the world leader. The annual growth rates in steel 1870–1913 were 7.0% for the US; 1.0% for Britain; 6.0% for Germany; and 4.3% for France, Belgium and Russia, the other major producers.[29] This explosive American growth rested on solid technological foundations, assisted by other factors, including African-American forced convict labor, the protective tariff and the continuous rapid expansion of urban infrastructures, office buildings, factories, railroads, bridges and other sectors that increasingly demanded steel. The use of steel in automobiles and household appliances came in the 20th century.
Some key elements in the growth of steel production included the easy availability of iron ore, coal, and underpaid labor. Iron ore of fair quality was abundant in the eastern states, but the Lake Superior region contained huge deposits of exceedingly rich ore; the Marquette Iron Range was discovered in 1844; operations began in 1846. Other ranges were opened by 1910, including the Menominee, Gogebic, Vermilion, Cuyuna, and, greatest of all, (in 1892) the Mesabi range in Minnesota. This iron ore was shipped through the Lakes to ports such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo for shipment by rail to the steel mills.[30] Abundant coal was available in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Manpower was short. Few Native Americans wanted to work in the mills, but immigrants from Britain and Germany (and later from Eastern Europe) arrived in great numbers.[31] A range of industries came to be dependent on convict leasing for cheap, dependable labor.[32]
"[I]n Alabama, industrialization was generating a ravenous appetite for the state’s coal and iron ore. Production was booming, and unions were attempting to organize free miners. Convicts provided an ideal captive work force: cheap, usually docile, unable to organize and available when free laborers went on strike."[33]
The Southern agrarian economy did not accommodate convict leasing as well as the industrial economy did, whose jobs were often unappealing or dangerous, offering hard-labor and low pay. The competition, expansion, and growth of mining and steel companies also created a high demand for labor, but union labor posed a threat to expanding companies. As unions bargained for higher wages and better conditions, often organizing strikes in order to achieve their goals, the growing companies would be forced to agree to union demands or face abrupt halts in production. The rate companies paid for convict leases, which paid the laborer nothing, was regulated by government and state officials who entered the labor contracts with companies. "The companies built their own prisons, fed and clothed the convicts, and supplied guards as they saw fit." (Blackmon 2001)[33] Alabama's use of convict leasing was commanding; 51 of its 67 counties regularly leased convicts serving for misdemeanors at a rate of about $5-20 per month, equal to about $160-500 in 2015. [34] Although the influence of labor unions forced some states to move away from the profitable convict lease agreements and run traditional prisons, plenty of companies began substituting convict labor in their operations in the twentieth century. "The biggest user of forced labor in Alabama at the turn of the century was Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., [of] U.S. Steel" [33]
In 1869 iron was already a major industry, accounting for 6.6% of manufacturing employment and 7.8% of manufacturing output. By then the central figure was Andrew Carnegie,[35] who made Pittsburgh the center of the industry.[36] He sold his operations to US Steel in 1901, which became the world's largest steel corporation for decades.
In the 1880s, the transition from wrought iron puddling to mass-produced Bessemer steel greatly increased worker productivity. Highly skilled workers remained essential, but the average level of skill declined. Nevertheless, steelworkers earned much more than ironworkers despite their fewer skills. Workers in an integrated, synchronized mass production environment wielded greater strategic power, for the greater cost of mistakes bolstered workers' status. The experience demonstrated that the new technology did not decrease worker bargaining leverage by creating an interchangeable, unskilled workforce.[37]
Carnegie[edit]
Main article: Andrew Carnegie
Carnegie's great innovation was in the cheap and efficient mass production of steel rails for railroad lines. This could not have happened without the prior invention of Bessemer Steel. Thus Carnegie's "innovation" was scale, not anything technical.
Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River, opened in 1874 using Carnegie steel
In the late 1880s, The Carnegie Steel was the largest manufacturer of pig iron, steel rails, and coke in the world, with a capacity to produce approximately 2,000 tons of pig iron per day. In 1888, he bought the rival Homestead Steel Works, which included an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a 425-mile (685 km) long railway, and a line of lake steamships. A consolidation of Carnegie's assets and those of his associates occurred in 1892 with the launching of the Carnegie Steel Company.
By 1889, the U.S. output of steel exceeded that of Britain, and Andrew Carnegie owned a large part of it. By 1900, the profits of Carnegie Bros. & Company alone stood at $480,000,000 with $225,000,000 being Carnegie's share. Carnegie's empire grew to include the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works (named for John Edgar Thomson, Carnegie's former boss and president of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill (Wilson, Walker & County), the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines. Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri (completed 1874). This project was an important proof-of-concept for steel technology which marked the opening of a new steel market.
The Homestead Strike was a violent labor dispute in 1892 that ended in a battle between strikers and private security guards. The dispute took place at Carnegie's Homestead Steel Works between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for efforts to unionize steelworkers.[38]
Carnegie sold all his steel holdings in 1901; they were merged into U.S. Steel and it was non-union until the late 1930s.
US Steel[edit]
Main article: US Steel
By 1900 the US was the largest producer and also the lowest cost producer, and demand for steel seemed inexhaustible. Output had tripled since 1890, but customers, not producers, mostly benefitted. Productivity-enhancing technology encouraged faster and faster rates of investment in new plants. However, during recessions, demand fell sharply taking down output, prices, and profits. Charles M. Schwab of Carnegie Steel proposed a solution: consolidation. Financier J. P. Morgan arranged the buyout of Carnegie and most other major forms, and put Elbert Gary in charge.
US Steel combined finishing firms (American Tin Plate (controlled by William Henry "Judge" Moore), American Steel and Wire, and National Tube) with two major integrated companies, Carnegie Steel and Federal Steel. It was capitalized at $1.466 billion, and included 213 manufacturing mills, one thousand miles of railroad, and 41 mines. In 1901, it accounted for 66% of America's steel output, and almost 30% of the world's. During World War I, its annual production exceeded the combined output of all German and Austrian firms.
In 1907, US Steel bought Tennessee Coal. Four years after its consolidation, US Steel was heavily dependent on convict laborers. When US Steel Chairman Elbert H. Gary discovered the use of forced labor within the company he ordered the practice cease immediately. In 1911, Tennessee Coal President George G. Crawford claimed that the company did intend to abandon the use of forced labor at some point, but could not abandon it now "without detriment to our operations." Crawford explained that US Steel's "chief inducement for the hiring of convicts was the certainty of a supply of coal for our manufacturing operations in the contingency of labor troubles."
Less than 100 years later, US Steel considers their use of forced labor a dead issue. Assistant general counsel Richard Lerach states, "Is it fair in fact to punish people who are living today, who have certain assets they might have inherited from others, or corporate assets that have been passed on?...You can get to a situation where there is such a passage of time that it simply doesn’t make sense and is not fair."[33]
US Steel is a supporter of President Donald Trump, most notably for his promise to 'bring back' the steel industry by using only American steel for infrastructure projects during his term; Trump's proposals to lower the corporate tax and implement Chinese import tariffs are also indicators for US Steel's support. US Steel (X) has a composite rating of 38 with a market cap of $4.49 billion according to Investor's Business Daily on 10/1/2017. [39] Earnings were recorded at $2.650 billion for 2016[40] with expectations for big growth in 2017. [41]
Bethlehem Steel[edit]
Bethlehem steel works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1881
Main article: Bethlehem Steel
Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) and Eugene Grace (1876–1960) made Bethlehem Steel the second-largest American steel company by the 1920s. Schwab had been the operating head of Carnegie Steel and US Steel. In 1903 he purchased the small firm Bethlehem Steel, and in 1916 made Grace president. Innovation was the keynote at a time when U.S. Steel under Judge Gary moved slowly. Bethlehem concentrated on government contracts, such as ships and naval armor, and on construction beams, especially for skyscrapers and bridges.[42] Its subsidiary Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation operated 15 shipyards in World War II. It produced 1,121 ships, more than any other builder during the war and nearly one-fifth of the U.S. Navy's fleet. Its peak employment was 180,000 workers, out of a company-wide wartime peak of 300,000. After 1945 Bethlehem doubled its steel capacity, a measure of the widespread optimism in the industry. However the company ignored the new technologies then being developed in Europe and Japan. Seeking labor peace in order to avoid strikes, Bethlehem like the other majors agreed to large wage and benefits increases that kept its costs high. After Grace retired the inbred executives concentrated on short term profits and postponed innovations that led to long-term inefficiency. It went bankrupt in 2001.[43]
Republic Steel[edit]
Cyrus Eaton (1883–1979) in 1925 purchased the small Trumbull Steel Company of Warren, Ohio, for $18 million. In the late 1920s he purchased undervalued steel and rubber companies. In 1930, Eaton consolidated his steel holdings into the Republic Steel, based in Cleveland; it became the third-largest steel producer in the U.S., after US Steel and Bethlehem Steel.[44]
Unions[edit]
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) tried and failed to organize the steelworkers in 1919. Although the strike gained widespread middle-class support because of its demand and the 12-hour day, the strike failed and unionization was postponed until the late 1930s. The Mills ended the 12-hour day in the early 1920s.[45]
The second surge of unionization came under the auspices of the militant CIO in the late 1930s, when it set up the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. The SWOC focused almost exclusively on the achievement of a signed contract, with "Little Steel" (the major producers except for US Steel). At the grassroots however, women of the steel auxiliaries, workers on the picket line, and middle-class liberals from across Chicago sought to transform the strike into something larger than a showdown over union recognition.In Chicago, the Little Steel Strike raised the possibility that steelworkers might embrace the ‘civic unionism’ that animated the left-led unions of the era. The effort failed, and while the strike was won, the resulting powerful United Steelworkers of America union suppressed grassroots opinions.[46]
Apogee and decline[edit]
Integration was the watchword as the various processes were brought together by large corporations, from mining the iron ore to shipping the finished product to wholesalers. The typical steelworks was a giant operation, including blast furnaces, Bessemer converters, open-hearth furnaces, rolling mills, coke ovens and foundries, as well as supported transportation facilities. The largest ones were operated in the region from Chicago to St. Louis to Baltimore, Philadelphia and Buffalo. Smaller operations appeared in Birmingham, Alabama, and in California.[47]
The industry grew slowly but other industries grew even faster, so that by 1967, as the downward spiral began, steel accounted for 4.4% of manufacturing employment and 4.9% of manufacturing output. After 1970 American steel producers could no longer compete effectively with low-wage producers elsewhere. Imports and local mini-mills undercut sales.
Per-capita steel consumption in the U.S. peaked in 1977, then fell by half before staging a modest recovery to levels well below the peak.[48]
Most mills were closed. Bethlehem went bankrupt in 2001. In 1984, Republic merged with Jones and Laughlin Steel Company; the new firm went bankrupt in 2001. US Steel diversified into oil (Marathon Oil was spun off in 2001). Finally US Steel reemerged in 2002 with plants in three American locations (plus one in Europe) that employed fewer than one-tenth the 168,000 workers of 1902. By 2001 steel accounted for only 0.8% of manufacturing employment and 0.8% of manufacturing output.[49]
The world steel industry peaked in 2007. That year, ThyssenKrupp spent $12 billion to build the two most modern mills in the world, in Alabama and Brazil. The worldwide great recession starting in 2008, however, with its heavy cutbacks in construction, sharply lowered demand and prices fell 40%. ThyssenKrupp lost $11 billion on its two new plants, which sold steel below the cost of production. Finally in 2013, ThyssenKrupp offered the plants for sale at under $4 billion.[50]
Legacy[edit]
The President of the United States is authorized to declare each May "Steelmark Month" to recognize the contribution made by the steel industry to the United States.[51]
Asia[edit]
Japan[edit]
Yonekura shows the steel industry was central to the economic development of Japan. The nation's sudden transformation from feudal to modern society in the late nineteenth century, its heavy industrialization and imperialist war ventures in 1900–1945, and the post-World War II high-economic growth, all depended on iron and steel. The other great Japanese industries, such as shipbuilding, automobiles, and industrial machinery are closely linked to steel. From 1850 to 1970, the industry increased its crude steel production from virtually nothing to 93.3 million tons (the third largest in the world).[52]
The government's activist Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) played a major role in coordination. The transfer of technology from the West and the establishment of competitive firms involved far more than buying foreign hardware. MITI located steel mills and organized a domestic market; it sponsored Yawata Steel Company. Japanese engineers and entrepreneurs internally developed the necessary technological and organizational capabilities, planned the transfer and adoption of technology, and gauged demand and sources of raw materials and finances.[53]
India[edit]
Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) was established by Dorabji Tata in 1907, as part of his father's conglomerate. By 1939 it operated the largest steel plant in the British Empire. The company launched a major modernization and expansion program in 1951.[54]
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a believer in socialism, decided that the technological revolution in India needed maximization of steel production. He, therefore, formed a government owned company, Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL) and set up three steel plants in the 1950s.[55]
The Indian steel industry began expanding into Europe in the 21st century. In January 2007 India's Tata Steel made a successful $11.3 billion offer to buy European steel maker Corus Group. In 2006 Mittal Steel (based in London but with Indian management) merged with Arcelor after a takeover bid for $34.3 billion to become the world's biggest steel maker, ArcelorMittal (based in Luxembourg City), with 10% of the world's output.[56]
China[edit]
Communist party dictator Mao Zedong disdained the cities and put his faith in the Chinese peasantry for a Great Leap Forward. Mao saw steel production as the key to overnight economic modernization, promising that within 15 years China's steel production would surpass that of Britain. In 1958 he decided that steel production would double within the year, using backyard steel furnaces run by inexperienced peasants. The plan was a fiasco, as the small amounts of steel produced were of very poor quality, and the diversion of resources out of agriculture produced a massive famine in 1959–61 that killed millions.[57]
With economic reforms brought in by Deng Xiaoping, who led China from 1978 to 1992, China began to develop a modern steel industry by building new steel plants and recycling scrap metal from the United States and Europe. As of 2013 China produced 779 million metric tons of steel each year, making it by far the largest steel producing country in the world. This is compared to 165 for the European Union, 110 for Japan, 87 for the United States and 81 for India.[58] China's 2013 steel production was equivalent to an average of 3.14 cubic meters of steel per second.[59]
See also[edit]
American Iron and Steel Institute
British Steel Corporation
Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, in Canada
Steelmaking
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Jump up ^ see map and statistics in W. S. Woytinsky and E. S. Woytinsky, World Population and Production Trends and Outlooks (1953) pp. 1114–17
Jump up ^ Anthony Daley (1996). Steel, State, and Labor: Mobilization and Adjustment in France. U of Pittsburgh Press. p. 91.
Jump up ^ W. S. Woytinsky and E. S. Woytinsky, World Population and Production Trends and Outlooks (1953) pp. 1121, 1124
Jump up ^ Dario Gaggio, "Prezzi Relativi E Path Dependence: La Siderurgia Elettrica Italiana Dall'inizio Del Secolo All'autarchia" [Relative Prices and Path Dependence: the Italian Electric Iron and Steel Industry from the Start of the Century to Self-sufficiency]. Società e Storia 1992 15(58): 789–823.
Jump up ^ Yves Mény (1987). The Politics of Steel: Western Europe and the Steel Industry in the Crisis Years (1974–1984). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 476–77.
Jump up ^ Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987) p. 200
Jump up ^ The Encyclopedia Americana. Encyclopedia Americana Corp. 1919. p. 381.
Jump up ^ Brian Greenberg, "What David Brody Wrought: The Impact of Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era," Labor History (1993) 34#4 pp. 457–69
Jump up ^ "Bill Moyers Journal . Douglas Blackmon on SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
^ Jump up to: a b c d "Hard Time: From Alabama’s Past, Capitalism and Racism In a Cruel Partnership | Slavery By Another Name". www.slaverybyanothername.com. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
Jump up ^ "$ in 1900 → 2015 | Inflation Calculator". www.in2013dollars.com. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
Jump up ^ ExplorePaHistory, s.v. Andrew Carnegie
Jump up ^ ExplorePaHistory.com, s.v. Steel City
Jump up ^ David Jardini, "From Iron to Steel: The Recasting of the Jones and Laughlins Workforce between 1885 and 1896," Technology & Culture (1995) 36#2 pp. 271–301
Jump up ^ Edward W. Bemis, "The Homestead Strike," The Journal of Political Economy, (1894) 2#3 pp. 369–96 in JSTOR
Jump up ^ "United States Steel Corp Stock Quote: X Stock News, Quotes, Analysis | Investors.com". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
Jump up ^ Daily, Investor's Business (2017-01-31). "U.S. Steel Eyes 2017 Earnings Surge After Solid Q4". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
Jump up ^ Linnane, Ciara. "U.S. Steel surges 7% as better-than-expected earnings offset Trump comments". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
Jump up ^ Robert Hessen, "The Transformation of Bethlehem Steel, 1904–1909," Business History Review (1972) 46#3 pp. 339–65 in JSTOR
Jump up ^ Kenneth Warren, Bethlehem Steel: Builder and Arsenal of America (2008).
Jump up ^ Marcus Gleisser (2005). The World Of Cyrus Eaton. Kent State University Press. pp. 38–49.
Jump up ^ Colston E. Warne, ed., The Steel Strike of 1919 (1968) contains short excerpts from primary sources and scholarly studies.
Jump up ^ Michael Dennis, "Chicago and the Little Steel strike," Labor History (2012) 53#2 pp. 167–204
Jump up ^ W. S., Woytinsky and E. S. Woytinsky, World Population and Production Trends and Outlooks (1953) pp. 1098–143,
Jump up ^ Smil, Vaclav (2006). Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Jump up ^ John P. Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline of the American Steel Industry (1988)
Jump up ^ John W. Miller and Ike Henning, "Thiessen gets offers for mills: Final bids for steel complexes in Alabama, Brazil will likely fall short of the company's hopes," Wall Street Journal March 1, 2013
Jump up ^ https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-81/pdf/STATUTE-81-Pg1097.pdf
Jump up ^ Seiichiro Yonekura, Japanese Iron & Steel Industry, 1850–1990: Continuity & Discontinuity (1994)
Jump up ^ Chalmers Johnson (1982). MITI and the japanese miracle: growth of industrial policy : 1925–1975. Stanford U.P. p. 87.
Jump up ^ Chikayoshi Nomura, "selling steel in the 1920s: TISCO in a period of transition," Indian Economic & Social History Review (2011) 48: 83–116, doi:10.1177/001946461004800104
Jump up ^ Sankar Ghose (1993). Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography. Allied Publishers. p. 550.
Jump up ^ Isobel Doole; Robin Lowe (2008). International Marketing Strategy: Analysis, Development and Implementation. Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 226.
Jump up ^ Wei Li and Dennis Tao Yang, "The Great Leap Forward: Anatomy of a Central Planning Disaster," Journal of Political Economy (2005) 113#4 pp. 840–77 in JSTOR
Jump up ^ World Steel Association. 23 January 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014
Jump up ^ Wolfram Alpha
Bibliography[edit]
Ashton, T. S. Iron and Steel in the Industrial Revolution (2nd edn., 1951).
Bernal, John Desmond, Science and Industry in the Nineteenth Century, Indiana University Press, 1970.
D’Costa, Anthony P. The Global Restructuring of the Steel Industry: Innovations, Institutions, and Industrial Change London: Routledge, 1999 online version
Hasegawa, Harukiyu. The Steel Industry in Japan: A Comparison with Britain 1996 online version
Landes, David S., The Unbound Prometheus: Technical Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present (2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Pounds, Norman J. G., and William N. Parker; Coal and Steel in Western Europe; the Influence of Resources and Techniques on Production (Indiana University Press, 1957) online version
Singer, Charles Joseph, ed. A history of technology: vol 4: The Industrial Revolution c 1750–c 1860 (1960) ch 4, and vol 5: The Late Nineteenth Century, c 1850–c 1900, ch 3; online at ACLS e-books
Stoddard, Brooke C. Steel: From Mine to Mill, the Metal that Made America (2015) short, global popular history excerpt
Woytinsky, W. S., and E. S. Woytinsky. World Population and Production Trends and Outlooks (1953) pp 1098–1143, with many tables and maps on the worldwide steel industry
Yonekura, Seiichiro. The Japanese iron and steel industry: Continuity and discontinuity, 1850–1970 (1994) excerpt and text search
Britain[edit]
Birch, Alan. Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (Routledge, 2013).
Burn, Duncan. The Steel Industry, 1939–1959: A Study in Competition and Planning (1961) online
Burn, Duncan. The Economic History of Steelmaking, 1867–1939: A Study in Competition. Cambridge University Press, 1961 online version
Carr, J. C. and W. Taplin; History of the British Steel Industry Harvard University Press, 1962 online version
Tweedale, Geoffrey. Steel City: Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Technology in Sheffield, 1743–1993. (Oxford U.P. 1995) online version
Vaizy, John. The history of British steel (1974), well illustrated
Warren, Kenneth. British Iron and Sheet Steel Industry since 1840 (1970) ISBN 0713515481 Economic geography.
United States[edit]
Hoerr, John P. And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline of the American Steel Industry (1988) excerpt and text search
Hogan, William T. Economic History of the Iron and Steel Industry in the United States (5 vol 1971) monumental detail
Krass, Peter. Carnegie (2002). ISBN 0-471-38630-8.
Livesay, Harold C. Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business, 2nd Edition (1999). ISBN 0-321-43287-8.
Misa, Thomas J. A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865–1925 (1995) Chapter 1 "The Dominance of Rails"
Nasaw, David. Andrew Carnegie (The Penguin Press, 2006).
Paskoff, Paul F. Iron and Steel in the Nineteenth Century (Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography) (1989) 385 pp; biographies and brief corporate histories
Rogers, Robert P. An Economic History of the American Steel Industry (2009) excerpt and text search
Scamehorn, H. Lee. Mill & Mine: The Cf&I in the Twentieth Century University of Nebraska Press, 1992 online version
Scheuerman, William. The Steel Crisis: The Economics and Politics of a Declining Industry (1986) online
Seely, Bruce E., ed The Iron and Steel Industry in the 20th Century (1994) (Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography)
Temin, Peter. Iron and Steel in Nineteenth-Century America, An Economic Inquiry (1964)
Wall, Joseph Frazier. Andrew Carnegie (1989). ISBN 0-8229-5904-6.
Warren, Kenneth, Big Steel: The First Century of the United States Steel Corporation, 1901–2001. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001) online review
Warren, Kenneth. Bethlehem Steel: Builder and Arsenal of America (2010) excerpt and text search
Warren, Kenneth. The American Steel Industry, 1850–1970: A Geographical Interpretation (1973) (ISBN 0198232144)
Whaples, Robert. "Andrew Carnegie", EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History online
U.S. Steel's History of U.S. Steel
Urofsky, Melvin I. Big Steel and the Wilson Administration: A Study in Business-Government Relations (1969) online
U.S. Labor[edit]
Brody, David. Labor in Crisis: The Steel Strike of 1919 (1965)
Mary Margaret Fonow; Union Women: Forging Feminism in the United Steelworkers of America (University of Minnesota Press, 2003) online version
U.S. Steel's History of U.S. Steel
Urofsky, Melvin I. Big Steel and the Wilson Administration: A Study in Business-Government Relations (1969)
Primary sources[edit]
U.S. Commissioner of Corporations. Report on the Steel Industry (1913).
Warne, Colston E. ed. The Steel Strike of 1919 (1963) primary and secondary documents
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Electrolysis of water
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Simple setup for demonstration of electrolysis of water at home
An AA battery in a glass of tap water with salt showing hydrogen produced at the negative terminal
Electrolysis of water is the decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen gas due to an electric current passed through the water. The reaction has a standard potential of −1.23 V, meaning it ideally requires a potential difference of 1.23 volts to split water.
This technique can be used to make hydrogen fuel (hydrogen gas) and breathable oxygen; though currently most industrial methods make hydrogen fuel from natural gas instead.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Principle
3 Equations
4 Thermodynamics
5 Electrolyte selection
6 Techniques
6.1 Fundamental demonstration
6.2 Hofmann voltameter
6.3 Industrial
6.4 High pressure
6.5 High-temperature
6.6 Alkaline water
6.7 Polymer electrolyte membrane
6.8 Nickel/iron
7 Applications
8 Efficiency
8.1 Industrial output
8.2 Overpotential
8.3 Thermodynamics
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
History[edit]
Device invented by Johann Wilhelm Ritter to develop the electrolysis of water
Jan Rudolph Deiman and Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk used, in 1789, an electrostatic machine to make electricity which was discharged on gold electrodes in a Leyden jar with water.[1] In 1800 Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, and a few weeks later William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used it for the electrolysis of water. When Zénobe Gramme invented the Gramme machine in 1869 electrolysis of water became a cheap method for the production of hydrogen. A method of industrial synthesis of hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis was developed by Dmitry Lachinov in 1888.[2]
Principle[edit]
A DC electrical power source is connected to two electrodes, or two plates (typically made from some inert metal such as platinum, stainless steel or iridium) which are placed in the water. Hydrogen will appear at the cathode (where electrons enter the water), and oxygen will appear at the anode.[3] Assuming ideal faradaic efficiency, the amount of hydrogen generated is twice the amount of oxygen, and both are proportional to the total electrical charge conducted by the solution.[4] However, in many cells competing side reactions occur, resulting in different products and less than ideal faradaic efficiency.
Electrolysis of pure water requires excess energy in the form of overpotential to overcome various activation barriers. Without the excess energy the electrolysis of pure water occurs very slowly or not at all. This is in part due to the limited self-ionization of water. Pure water has an electrical conductivity about one millionth that of seawater. Many electrolytic cells may also lack the requisite electrocatalysts. The efficiency of electrolysis is increased through the addition of an electrolyte (such as a salt, an acid or a base) and the use of electrocatalysts.
Currently the electrolytic process is rarely used in industrial applications since hydrogen can currently be produced more affordably from fossil fuels.[5]
Equations[edit]
Diagram showing the overall chemical equation.
In pure water at the negatively charged cathode, a reduction reaction takes place, with electrons (e−) from the cathode being given to hydrogen cations to form hydrogen gas. The half reaction, balanced with acid, is:
Reduction at cathode: 2 H+(aq) + 2e− → H2(g)
At the positively charged anode, an oxidation reaction occurs, generating oxygen gas and giving electrons to the anode to complete the circuit:
Oxidation at anode: 2 H2O(l) → O2(g) + 4 H+(aq) + 4e−
The same half reactions can also be balanced with base as listed below. Not all half reactions must be balanced with acid or base. Many do, like the oxidation or reduction of water listed here. To add half reactions they must both be balanced with either acid or base. The acid-balanced reactions predominate in acidic (low pH) solutions, while the base-balanced reactions predominate in basic (high pH) solutions.
Cathode (reduction): 2 H2O(l) + 2e− → H2(g) + 2 OH−(aq)
Anode (oxidation): 4 OH−(aq) → O2(g) + 2 H2O(l) + 4 e−
Combining either half reaction pair yields the same overall decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen:
Overall reaction: 2 H2O(l) → 2 H2(g) + O2(g)
The number of hydrogen molecules produced is thus twice the number of oxygen molecules. Assuming equal temperature and pressure for both gases, the produced hydrogen gas has therefore twice the volume of the produced oxygen gas. The number of electrons pushed through the water is twice the number of generated hydrogen molecules and four times the number of generated oxygen molecules.
Thermodynamics[edit]
Pourbaix diagram for water, including equilibrium regions for water, oxygen and hydrogen at STP. The vertical scale is the electrode potential of a hydrogen or non-interacting electrode relative to an SHE electrode, the horizontal scale is the pH of the electrolyte (otherwise non-interacting). Neglecting overpotential, above the top line the equilibrium condition is oxygen gas, and oxygen will bubble off of the electrode until equilibrium is reached. Likewise, below the bottom line, the equilibrium condition is hydrogen gas, and hydrogen will bubble off of the electrode until equilibrium is reached.
Decomposition of pure water into hydrogen and oxygen at standard temperature and pressure is not favorable in thermodynamic terms.
Anode (oxidation): 2 H2O(l) → O2(g) + 4 H+(aq) + 4e− Eo = +1.23 V[6]
Cathode (reduction): 2 H+(aq) + 2e− → H2(g) Eo = 0.00 V
Thus, the standard potential of the water electrolysis cell (Eocell = Eocathode − Eoanode) is −1.23 V at 25 °C at pH 0 ([H+] = 1.0 M). At 25 °C with pH 7 ([H+] = 1.0×10−7 M), the potential is unchanged based on the Nernst equation. The thermodynamic standard cell potential can be obtained from standard-state free energy calculations to find ΔG° and then using the equation: ΔG°= -nFE°(where E° is the cell potential). In practice when an electrochemical cell is "driven" toward completion by applying reasonable potential, it is kinetically controlled. Therefore, activation energy, ion mobility (diffusion) and concentration, wire resistance, surface hindrance including bubble formation (causes electrode area blockage), and entropy, require a greater applied potential to overcome these factors. The amount of increase in potential required is termed the overpotential.
Electrolyte selection[edit]
Hoffman voltameter connected to a direct current power supply
If the above described processes occur in pure water, H+ cations will be consumed/reduced at the cathode and OH− anions will consumed/oxidised at the anode. This can be verified by adding a pH indicator to the water: the water near the cathode is basic while the water near the anode is acidic. The negative hydroxide ions that approach the anode mostly combine with the positive hydronium ions (H3O+) to form water. The positive hydronium ions that approach the cathode mostly combine with negative hydroxide ions to form water. Relatively few hydronium/hydroxide ions reach the cathode/anode. This can cause a concentration overpotential at both electrodes.
Pure water is a fairly good insulator since it has a low autoionization, Kw = 1.0×10−14 at room temperature and thus pure water conducts current poorly, 0.055 µS·cm−1.[7] Unless a very large potential is applied to cause an increase in the autoionization of water the electrolysis of pure water proceeds very slowly limited by the overall conductivity.
If a water-soluble electrolyte is added, the conductivity of the water rises considerably. The electrolyte disassociates into cations and anions; the anions rush towards the anode and neutralize the buildup of positively charged H+ there; similarly, the cations rush towards the cathode and neutralize the buildup of negatively charged OH− there. This allows the continued flow of electricity.[8]
Care must be taken in choosing an electrolyte, since an anion from the electrolyte is in competition with the hydroxide ions to give up an electron. An electrolyte anion with less standard electrode potential than hydroxide will be oxidized instead of the hydroxide, and no oxygen gas will be produced. A cation with a greater standard electrode potential than a hydrogen ion will be reduced instead, and no hydrogen gas will be produced.
The following cations have lower electrode potential than H+ and are therefore suitable for use as electrolyte cations: Li+, Rb+, K+, Cs+, Ba2+, Sr2+, Ca2+, Na+, and Mg2+. Sodium and lithium are frequently used, as they form inexpensive, soluble salts.
If an acid is used as the electrolyte, the cation is H+, and there is no competitor for the H+ created by disassociating water. The most commonly used anion is sulfate (SO2−
4), as it is very difficult to oxidize, with the standard potential for oxidation of this ion to the peroxydisulfate ion being −2.05 volts.
Strong acids such as sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and strong bases such as potassium hydroxide (KOH), and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) are frequently used as electrolytes due to their strong conducting abilities.
A solid polymer electrolyte can also be used such as Nafion and when applied with a special catalyst on each side of the membrane can efficiently split the water molecule with as little as 1.5 Volts. There are also a number of other solid electrolyte systems that have been trialled and developed with a number of electrolysis systems now available commercially that use solid electrolytes.[9]
Techniques[edit]
Main article: Water splitting
Fundamental demonstration[edit]
Two leads, running from the terminals of a battery, are placed in a cup of water with a quantity of electrolyte to establish conductivity in the solution. Using NaCl (table salt) in an electrolyte solution results in chlorine gas rather than oxygen due to a competing half-reaction. With the correct electrodes and correct electrolyte, such as baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), hydrogen and oxygen gases will stream from the oppositely charged electrodes. Oxygen will collect at the positively charged electrode (anode) and hydrogen will collect at the negatively charged electrode (cathode). Note that hydrogen is positively charged in the H2O molecule, so it ends up at the negative electrode. (And vice versa for oxygen.)
Note that an aqueous solution of water with chloride ions, when electrolysed, will result in either OH− if the concentration of Cl− is low, or in chlorine gas being preferentially discharged if the concentration of Cl− is greater than 25% by mass in the solution.
Match test used to detect the presence of hydrogen gas
Hofmann voltameter[edit]
Main article: Hofmann voltameter
The Hofmann voltameter is often used as a small-scale electrolytic cell. It consists of three joined upright cylinders. The inner cylinder is open at the top to allow the addition of water and the electrolyte. A platinum electrode is placed at the bottom of each of the two side cylinders, connected to the positive and negative terminals of a source of electricity. When current is run through the Hofmann voltameter, gaseous oxygen forms at the anode (positive) and gaseous hydrogen at the cathode (negative). Each gas displaces water and collects at the top of the two outer tubes, where it can be drawn off with a stopcock.
Industrial[edit]
Many industrial electrolysis cells are very similar to Hofmann voltameters, with complex platinum plates or honeycombs as electrodes. Generally the only time hydrogen is intentionally produced from electrolysis is for specific point of use application such as is the case with oxyhydrogen torches or when extremely high purity hydrogen or oxygen is desired. The vast majority of hydrogen is produced from hydrocarbons and as a result contains trace amounts of carbon monoxide among other impurities. The carbon monoxide impurity can be detrimental to various systems including many fuel cells.
High pressure[edit]
Main article: High pressure electrolysis
High pressure electrolysis is the electrolysis of water with a compressed hydrogen output around 120–200 Bar (1740–2900 psi).[10] By pressurising the hydrogen in the electrolyser, the need for an external hydrogen compressor is eliminated; the average energy consumption for internal compression is around 3%.[11]
High-temperature[edit]
Main article: High-temperature electrolysis
High-temperature electrolysis (also HTE or steam electrolysis) is a method currently being investigated for water electrolysis with a heat engine. High temperature electrolysis may be preferable to traditional room-temperature electrolysis because some of the energy is supplied as heat, which is cheaper than electricity, and because the electrolysis reaction is more efficient at higher temperatures.[12][13]
Alkaline water[edit]
Main article: Alkaline water electrolysis
Polymer electrolyte membrane[edit]
Main article: Polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis
Nickel/iron[edit]
In 2014, researchers announced an electrolysis system made of inexpensive, abundant nickel and iron rather than precious metal catalysts, such as platinum or iridium. The nickel-metal/nickel-oxide structure is more active than pure nickel metal or pure nickel oxide alone. The catalyst significantly lowers the required voltage.[14][15] Also nickel–iron batteries are being investigated for use as combined batteries and electrolysis for hydrogen production. Those "battolysers" could be charged and discharged like conventional batteries, and would produce hydrogen when fully charged.[16]
Applications[edit]
About five percent of hydrogen gas produced worldwide is created by electrolysis. The majority of this hydrogen produced through electrolysis is a side product in the production of chlorine and caustic soda. This is a prime example of a competing side reaction.
2NaCl + 2H2O → Cl2 + H2 + 2NaOH
The electrolysis of brine, a water/sodium chloride mixture, is only half the electrolysis of water since the chloride ions are oxidized to chlorine rather than water being oxidized to oxygen. Thermodynamically, this would not be expected since the oxidation potential of the chloride ion is less than that of water, but the rate of the chloride reaction is much greater than that of water, causing it to predominate. The hydrogen produced from this process is either burned (converting it back to water), used for the production of specialty chemicals, or various other small-scale applications.
Water electrolysis is also used to generate oxygen for the International Space Station.[17][18]
Hydrogen may later be used in a fuel cell as a storage method of energy and water.[19]
Efficiency[edit]
Industrial output[edit]
Efficiency of modern hydrogen generators is measured by energy consumed per standard volume of hydrogen (MJ/m3), assuming standard temperature and pressure of the H2. The lower the energy used by a generator, the higher would be its efficiency; a 100%-efficient electrolyser would consume 39.4 kilowatt-hours per kilogram (142 MJ/kg) of hydrogen,[20] 12,749 joules per litre (12.75 MJ/m3). Practical electrolysis (using a rotating electrolyser at 15 bar pressure) may consume 50 kilowatt-hours per kilogram (180 MJ/kg), and a further 15 kilowatt-hours (54 MJ) if the hydrogen is compressed for use in hydrogen cars.[21]
Electrolyser vendors provide efficiencies based on enthalpy. To assess the claimed efficiency of an electrolyser it is important to establish how it was defined by the vendor (i.e. what enthalpy value, what current density, etc.).
There are two main technologies available on the market, alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers. Alkaline electrolysers are cheaper in terms of investment (they generally use nickel catalysts), but less efficient; PEM electrolysers, conversely, are more expensive (they generally use expensive platinum-group metal catalysts) but are more efficient and can operate at higher current densities, and can therefore be possibly cheaper if the hydrogen production is large enough.
Conventional alkaline electrolysis has an efficiency of about 70%.[22] Accounting for the accepted use of the higher heat value (because inefficiency via heat can be redirected back into the system to create the steam required by the catalyst), average working efficiencies for PEM electrolysis are around 80%.[23] This is expected to increase to between 82-86%[24] before 2030. Theoretical efficiency for PEM electrolysers are predicted up to 94%.[25]
H2 production cost ($-gge untaxed) at varying natural gas prices
Considering the industrial production of hydrogen, and using current best processes for water electrolysis (PEM or alkaline electrolysis) which have an effective electrical efficiency of 70-80%,[26][27][28] producing 1 kg of hydrogen (which has a specific energy of 143 MJ/kg or about 40 kWh/kg) requires 50–55 kWh of electricity. At an electricity cost of $0.06/kWh, as set out in the Department of Energy hydrogen production targets for 2015,[29] the hydrogen cost is $3/kg. With the range of natural gas prices from 2016 as shown in the graph (Hydrogen Production Tech Team Roadmap, November 2017) putting the cost of SMR hydrogen at between $1.20 and $1.50, the cost price of hydrogen via electrolysis is still over double 2015 DOE hydrogen target prices. The US DOE target price for hydrogen in 2020 is $2.30/kg, requiring an electricity cost of $0.037/kWh, which is achievable given recent PPA tenders[30] for wind and solar in many regions. This puts the $4/gge H2 dispensed objective well within reach, and close to a slightly elevated natural gas production cost for SMR.
In other parts of the world, steam methane reforming is between $1-3/kg on average. This makes production of hydrogen via electrolysis cost competitive in many regions already, as outlined by Nel Hydrogen[31] and others, including an article by the IEA[32] examining the conditions which could lead to a competitive advantage for electrolysis.
Overpotential[edit]
Real water electrolysers require higher voltages for the reaction to proceed. The part that exceeds 1.23 V[33] is called overpotential or overvoltage, and represents any kind of loss and nonideality in the electrochemical process.
For a well designed cell the largest overpotential is the reaction overpotential for the four-electron oxidation of water to oxygen at the anode; electrocatalysts can facilitate this reaction, and platinum alloys are the state of the art for this oxidation. Developing a cheap, effective electrocatalyst for this reaction would be a great advance, and is a topic of current research; there are many approaches, among them a 30-year-old recipe for molybdenum sulfide,[34] graphene quantum dots,[35] carbon nanotubes,[15] perovskite,[36] and nickel/nickel-oxide.[37][38] The simpler two-electron reaction to produce hydrogen at the cathode can be electrocatalyzed with almost no overpotential by platinum, or in theory a hydrogenase enzyme. If other, less effective, materials are used for the cathode (e.g. graphite), large overpotentials will appear.
Thermodynamics[edit]
The electrolysis of water in standard conditions requires a theoretical minimum of 237 kJ of electrical energy input to dissociate each mole of water, which is the standard Gibbs free energy of formation of water. It also requires energy to overcome the change in entropy of the reaction. Therefore, the process cannot proceed below 286 kJ per mol if no external heat/energy is added.
Since each mole of water requires two moles of electrons, and given that the Faraday constant F represents the charge of a mole of electrons (96485 C/mol), it follows that the minimum voltage necessary for electrolysis is about 1.23 V.[39] If electrolysis is carried out at high temperature, this voltage reduces. This effectively allows the electrolyser to operate at more than 100% electrical efficiency. In electrochemical systems this means that heat must be supplied to the reactor to sustain the reaction. In this way thermal energy can be used for part of the electrolysis energy requirement.[40] In a similar way the required voltage can be reduced (below 1 V) if fuels (such as carbon, alcohol, biomass) are reacted with water (PEM based electrolyzer in low temperature) or oxygen ions (solid oxide electrolyte based electrolyzer in high temperature). This results in some of the fuel's energy being used to "assist" the electrolysis process and can reduce the overall cost of hydrogen produced.[41]
However, observing the entropy component (and other losses), voltages over 1.48 V are required for the reaction to proceed at practical current densities (the thermoneutral voltage).
In the case of water electrolysis, Gibbs free energy represents the minimum work necessary for the reaction to proceed, and the reaction enthalpy is the amount of energy (both work and heat) that has to be provided so the reaction products are at the same temperature as the reactant (i.e. standard temperature for the values given above). Potentially, an electrolyser operating at 1.48 V would be 100% efficient.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
Electrochemistry
Electrochemical engineering
Electrolysis
Hydrogen production
Noryl
Gas cracker
Photocatalytic water splitting
Water purification
Timeline of hydrogen technologies
Electrochemical cell
References[edit]
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External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Water electrolysis.
"Electrolysis of Water". Experiments on Electrochemistry. Retrieved 20 November 2005.
"Electrolysis of Water". Do Chem 044. Archived from the original on 14 March 2006. Retrieved 20 November 2005.
EERE 2008 – 100 kgH2/day Trade Study
NREL 2006 – Electrolysis technical report
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