I was reading about the production of calcium carbide, and that it involves mixing lime and coal in an arc furnace. Is there something unique about arc furnace heating that, say, an induction furnace could not provide?
Coal and lime probably don’t have a high enough inductance to be heated by induction. Induction furnaces are limited to metals as far as I know. Also, the temperature required for this process is almost 4000°F, which is difficult to obtain by combustion. Thus, electric arc is about the only way to go.
But the process does just require heat, right? So if you had a magical furnace that could reach that temperature, it would work as well? Or does the electric arc itself do anything to the chemistry?
Yes, you could probably use a laser furnace if it was cost-effective at those power levels. But it’s not even close. Arcs are and very practical in almost every sense and ridiculously cheap besides the power they consume. And a laser would consume more.
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