Eric,
Converting anything into iron would be endothermic, and there is an
electric arc to supply power, but hardly enough for transmutation ... of
even a few ounces.
What they may overlooked is a monoclinic iron carbide which is 40%
carbon ... and which is a good and even an expected candidate for the
so-called "excess"... since they do not specify how much of the carbon
electrode has been lost.
Eric Walker wrote:
Jones Beene wrote:
"The daily input of Si and Fe was 20.479 tons at his smelting
plant, and the output was 24.75 tons. There was a daily excess of
4.27 tons of iron and silica."
A process that would produce 4 tons of iron from another element in
one day would probably imply the release (or consumption) of an
astounding amount of energy. When a nuclear bomb explodes, only a
relatively small amount of the fissile material is converted to other
elements.
Eric