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 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.

The disclosure discloses a method of operating an electric arc furnace, the method comprising capturing, from at least one facility of a steel mill, a heated metallurgical gas comprising water and carbon monoxide; conducting, by a reactor supply line, said metallurgical gas to a reactor; transforming, by a treatment of said metallurgical gas within said reactor, the carbon monoxide and water into hydrogen and carbon dioxide according to a water-gas shift reaction; and subsequently separating said hydrogen by a separation device. The method is characterized in that it further comprises providing an iron-bearing material, which comprises iron mainly in the form of iron oxide, to the electric arc furnace; at least partially melting the iron-bearing material to obtain a molten bath; conducting, by a furnace supply line, said hydrogen to the electric arc furnace, which is arranged downstream of the furnace supply line; and injecting, by a plurality of hydrogen injection devices, said hydrogen into said electric arc furnace, such that said hydrogen reacts as a reducing agent for reducing iron oxide in the molten bath during a smelting operation of the electric arc furnace.

The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments to a method for steel production, the method comprising forming a hydrogen and a carbon from a natural gas using thermal plasma electrolysis; reducing iron ore fines with the H.sub.2 to form an iron briquette; melting the briquette iron from the furnace to form a melted iron and melted non-metallic slag; separating the non-metallic slag from the melted iron in the furnace; combining the carbon and the melted iron in a furnace to form a carbon black and iron mixture; and alloying the melted iron with the carbon black to form a steel.

Described herein are photonic furnaces and methods of using the same to produce metal products from a precursor material.

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. %.