Treating cooling water in industrial production facilities and associated systems, devices, and methods are disclosed herein. The system can comprise a cooling tower with a first and second cell, each having a housing to receive return water and a sump below to maintain supply water configured to directly contact molten metal. The system includes an inlet and an inlet line to provide return water to the cooling tower and an outlet and an outlet line to direct supply water back to the industrial production facility. The inlet, outlet, and cooling tower form a closed-loop network. Additionally, a blowdown line is fluidically coupled to the outlet to divert a portion of the supply water away from the closed-loop network.

A distributing and feeding apparatus includes a distribution table configured to circumferentially distribute a long article and being fed from above, and transport the article in a circumferential direction such that a longitudinal direction of the article is along the circumferential direction of the distribution table at an outer peripheral portion, a plurality of guide members provided around the outer peripheral portion of the distribution table, and a plurality of transport feeders arrayed radially around the distribution table, and configured to transport the article in a radial direction while aligning the article received from the distribution table so as to face the radial direction. The guide member is provided so as to interfere with the article transported at the outer peripheral portion of the distribution table so that the longitudinal direction of the article is directed from the circumferential direction to the radial direction.

Powder is weighed with high accuracy by inexpensive configuration. A weight measurement apparatus for storing, in a subdivision container, material of a target weight from a raw material container includes a movable arm to which a scoop is attached, a scraper, a subdivision weight measurement instrument configured to measure the weight of material in the subdivision container, and a controller. The controller is configured to, by controlling the movable arm, scoop material up by the scoop from the raw material container, level the material off in the scoop using the scraper, and store, in the subdivision container, the material in the scoop based on the weight of the material in the subdivision container measured by the subdivision weight measurement instrument.

A low-carbon granulated metallic unit having a mass fraction of carbon between 0.1 wt. % and 4.0 wt. % is disclosed herein. Additionally or alternatively, the granulated metallic unit can comprise a mass fraction of phosphorous of at least 0.025 wt. %, a mass fraction of silicon between 0.25 wt. % and 1.5 wt. %, a mass fraction of manganese of at least 0.2 wt. %, a mass fraction of sulfur of at least 0.0001 wt. %, and/or a mass fraction of iron of at least 94.0 wt. %.

Reduced-waste systems and methods for granulated metallic units (GMUs) production are disclosed herein. A representative method can include receiving a first supply of molten iron and producing GMUs by granulating the molten iron poured onto a target material of a reactor. The method can include removing residual fines of the GMUs via a classifier based on a threshold particle size and mixing the residual fines with a second supply of molten iron to produce additional GMUs.

A low-sulfur granulated metallic unit having a mass fraction of sulfur between 0.0001 wt. % and 0.08 wt. % is disclosed herein. Additionally or alternatively, the granulated metallic unit can comprise a mass fraction of phosphorous of at least 0.025 wt. %, a mass fraction of silicon between 0.25 wt. % and 1.5 wt. %, a mass fraction of manganese of at least 0.2 wt. %, a mass fraction of carbon of at least 0.8 wt. %, and/or a mass fraction of iron of at least 94.0 wt. %.

A weighing apparatus (1) according to an embodiment includes: adjacent hoppers (12A, 12B); and a sorting mechanism (20) disposed between the adjacent hoppers (12A, 12B), the sorting mechanism (20) sorting an article given from outside into one of the adjacent hoppers (12A, 12B), in which the sorting mechanism (20) includes a rotator (21) rotatable around a rotation shaft (21R), the rotation shaft (21R) and a central axis (21C) of the rotator (21) are not parallel, the rotator (21) rotates when the article abuts on the rotator (21), and the rotator (21) does not rotate when the article does not abut on the rotator (21).