Iron Cycle on Mars and other worlds.(Materials Extraction)

Void · 2025-03-08 11:33:04

If you want to consolidate this into the "Iron and Steel on Mars by JoshNH4H", we can.

Mars apparently being rusty, my notion is to start with low grade ore and then mix it with something like Algae. Algae may be possible to grow in very basic habitable environments that could be created. The algae would likely produce excess Oxygen, if being grown in sunlight.

The mix then could be subjected to Pyrolysis, to reduce the low-grade ore. This would also create H20 and CO2.

Then it may be possible to subject the solid results to a magnetic separation process and get a upgraded content of Iron, and then also tailings.

The iron rich results might be put into an impoundment of water to rust. Some CO2 might be added to facilitate rusting.

The rusting process should produce free Hydrogen.

I am not sure if the iron will be soluble or Oxidized at this point.

If possible to precipitate the iron as Oxidized, then it could be an "ore" with a higher Iron concentration than the original ore.

As Oxidized, then you could mix it again with Algae, and subject it to pyrolysis and then another magnetic separation process.

Then another rusting process.

So then going in a loop, you might generate Oxygen and Hydrogen, and eventually a beneficiated iron content ore.

I am willing to be corrected. I am a bit weak on the rusting process. I want Oxidized Iron, not soluble iron. Or rather I might like soluble iron that then precipitates into an Oxidized iron concentrate. This might mimic the ancient Earth's processes that created iron deposits.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (2025-03-10 08:39:26)

tahanson43206 · 2025-03-08 11:58:34

Iron is needed for the human body (and other living creatures).

A topic about iron in Life Support Systems Category has the potential to accumulate knowledge about how to acquire iron for healthful living on Mars and other locations away from Earth.

This post is reserved for an index to posts that may be contributed by NewMars members.

Index:
Post #3: Selections from Google about how iron is used in the body

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tahanson43206 · 2025-03-08 12:02:23

Because this topic about iron is placed in teh Life Support Systems category, I asked Google about how humans use iron:

Search Labs | AI Overview
Learn more
The amount of iron a person needs depends on their age, sex, and pregnancy status.
Recommended daily iron intake
9–13 years: 8 mg
14–18 years: 15 mg
19–50 years (men): 8 mg for men, 18 mg for women
51 and older: 8 mg for men and women
Pregnant women: 27 mg
Lactating women 19–30 years: 9 mg, or 10 mg for women 14–18 years
Why iron is important
Iron helps the body grow and develop.
It's needed to make hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body.
It's also needed to make myoglobin, a protein that supplies oxygen to muscles.
Iron helps ensure that oxygen-rich blood gets to brain cells, which helps them function properly.
Iron deficiency
Iron deficiency can occur due to a diet low in iron, blood loss, or pregnancy. Symptoms include tiredness, lack of energy, shortness of breath, noticeable heartbeats, and pale skin.
Iron sources
Iron is found in animal foods like meat, poultry, and seafood. Vegetarians may need to take iron supplements because the body doesn't absorb nonheme iron in plant foods as well as heme iron in animal foods.
Iron - Consumer - NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
Aug 17, 2023 — What is iron and what does it do? Iron is a mineral that the body needs for growth and development. Your body uses iro...
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
Iron - The Nutrition Source
RDA: The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for adults 19-50 years is 8 mg daily for men, 18 mg for women, 27 mg for pregnancy, a...
The Nutrition Source
Iron in Diet - UF Health
* 9 to 13 years: 8 mg/day. * 14 to 18 years: 15 mg/day. * 19 to 50 years: 18 mg/day. * 51 and older: 8 mg/day. * Pregnant women o...
UF Health
Show all
This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional. Generative AI is experimental.

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Iron Requirements
The adult minimum daily requirement of iron is 1.8 mg. Only about 10 to 30 percent of the iron you consume is absorbed and used by the body. The daily requirement of iron can be achieved by taking iron supplements. Ferrous sulfate 325 mg, taken orally once a day, and by eating foods high in iron.
Hemoglobin and Functions of Iron - UCSF Health
UCSF Health
https://www.ucs

Regarding foods, Google found:

10+ Best High iron foods for anemia
Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.com
High iron foods for anemia — Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try. Discover recipes...
Easy, breezy recipes · Recipes easy as 1, 2, 3 · Top 100 recipes · Tasty dinners made simple
Image from goodhousekeeping.com
Sponsored
List of Foods That Are High in Iron - 15 Iron-Rich Foods
Good Housekeeping
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com
Reviews, Recommendations, and Top Rated Products from the Editors at Good Housekeeping. Don't miss out on the best Advice & Deals of the season, reviewed by Good Housekeeping. Best of 2025.
25 Foods That Have More Iron Than Beef - 25 Foods High In Iron
Prevention
https://www.prevention.com
No red meat? No problem! These iron-rich foods will help you meet your daily intake. From Keto To The Mediterranean Diet, Experts...
Image from facty.com
Sponsored
Top 31 Foods Highest in Iron - Foods for Iron Deficiency
Facty
https://www.facty.com › foods › iron
Elevate Your Energy Levels With 31 Iron-Rich Foods. Increase Energy Levels...
18 Foods High In Iron · Top 18 Iron-Rich Foods · Best Food Sources Of Iron · Anemia Causes
Search Labs | AI Overview
Learn more
Foods High in Iron: Clams, Dark Chocolate, White Beans, and ...
Many foods are high in iron, including meat, seafood, beans, vegetables, and fortified cereals.
Meat and seafood
beef, chicken, clams, eggs, lamb, liver, oysters, pork, shrimp, and tuna.
Vegetables Broccoli, Beet greens, Collards, Spinach, and String beans.
Beans and legumes Canned or dried beans, Lentils, Peas, Tofu, and Tempeh.
Grains and cereals
bran cereals, cornmeal, enriched pasta, enriched white bread, oat cereals, and wheat products.
Other foods
Figs
Dates
Raisins
Prunes and prune juice
Dark leafy greens
Potatoes
Cabbage and Brussels sprouts
Tomato paste
The body absorbs iron from food mainly in the upper part of the small intestine. There are two types of iron in food: heme and non-heme. Heme iron is easier for the body to absorb.
Most people can get enough iron from food.
Iron-Rich Food | List of Meats And Vegetables | Red Cross Blood
Red Cross Blood Donation
52 Foods High In Iron
Mar 15, 2023
Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials
Iron-Rich Foods: Sources and Supplements - WebMD
Nov 15, 2023 — How the Body Uses Iron. When you eat food with iron, iron is absorbed into your body mainly through the upper part of ...
WebMD
Show all

(th)

Void · 2025-03-10 08:24:43

I ran into this: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/h … 9777&ei=11
Quote:

Hydrogen plasma breakthrough could trigger emission-free metal production
Story by Aman Tripathi • 1d • 3 min read

I think it could fit in with this topic.

Where I previously suggested mixing Algae with a regolith, and then heating it, perhaps with solar heat to perform pyrolysis, I am thinking this Hydrogen Plasma process might be good for a next process to reduce the regolith of Oxygen and possibly the Carbon that might be transferred into the materials from the Algae.

Ending Pending

The process I have described here includes a "Rusting" subprocess, where Hydrogen would be produced.

I have often gone on about ice covered lakes on Mars. Of course, the ice likely needs some kind of protection from evaporation.

But the lakes could be places where a reduction of regolith process could occur which might produce free Hydrogen.

A rust might be separated using flotation with starch, to make in beneficiated concentration of Iron Oxide. That is one method possible.

But if going in a circle as I have suggested, also the rust collected, might be subjected to pyrolysis with organic materials mixed into it. Then the results of that could be magnetically separated to produce a greater iron concentrate.

The finally with sufficient concentration you might use Hydrogen Plasma as suggested in the article.

But you might also while refining Iron, deal with some type of microbial driven extraction of other substances/metals. You might do that using Oxidation or Reduction.

Ending Pending

Could we do a cycle like this on Earth? Perhaps the rusting process could be done in tanks that could be dropped deep into the ocean, where under high pressures with heat, it might occur quickly? Maybe something else. In the production of Hydrogen you could then bond it to CO2 collected.

But the rust then mixed with easy to grow biomass could be subjected to Pyrolysis, to reduce the iron or other substances. While it may seem like this would just add Carbon to the atmosphere, perhaps the Hydrogen produced could be used to make Methane from the CO2 emissions.

Anyway, we would like greenhouse gasses on Mars, most likely.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (2025-03-10 08:56:09)

Void · 2025-03-11 09:28:14

Simulating the way Bog Iron is formed could be a sub-process in an Ion Cycle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_iron
Quote:

Bog iron is a form of impure iron deposit that develops in bogs or swamps by the chemical or biochemical oxidation of iron carried in solution. In general, bog ores consist primarily of iron oxyhydroxides, commonly goethite (FeO(OH)).
Iron-bearing groundwater typically emerges as a spring and the iron in it forms ferric hydroxide upon encountering the oxidizing environment of the surface. Bog ore often combines goethite and magnetite, and may include vugs and stained quartz. Oxidation may occur through enzyme catalysis by iron bacteria. It is not clear whether the magnetite precipitates upon the first contact with oxygen, then oxidizes to ferric compounds, or whether the ferric compounds are reduced when exposed to anoxic conditions upon burial beneath the sediment surface and reoxidized upon exhumation at the surface.[citation needed]

In nature the process is rather slow, but perhaps it could be sped up.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (2025-03-11 09:30:42)

Void · Yesterday 10:56:58

I really am thinking that working with Iron, biochemically may be of some value.

I would say it again; I think that regolith could be reduced by mixing it with organic matter and heating the mix in a pyrolysis oven. This would be a way to capture stored energy on a world like Mars where solar energy may be very intermittent.

In these processes it may be hoped that biology might be incorporated to possibly concentrate iron, and also to extract other materials.

A lake on Mars could be both Anaerobic on its bottom and Oxidized in its upper layers. This is true of Antarctic Dry Valley lakes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vanda
Quote:

Lake Vanda is a lake in Wright Valley, Victoria Land, Ross Dependency, Antarctica. The lake is 5 km (3.1 mi) long and has a maximum depth of 69 m (226 ft).[2] On its shore, New Zealand maintained Vanda Station from 1968 to 1995. At depths of greater than approximately 50 meters,[3] Lake Vanda is a hypersaline lake with a salinity more than ten times that of seawater[4] and more than the salinity of the Dead Sea. Lake Vanda is also meromictic, which means that the deeper waters of the lake don't mix with the shallower waters.[5] There are three distinct layers of water ranging in temperature from 23 °C (73 °F) on the bottom to the middle layer of 7 °C (45 °F) and the upper layer ranges from 4–6 °C (39–43 °F).[6] It is only one of the many saline lakes in the ice-free valleys of the Transantarctic Mountains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meromictic_lake
Quote:

A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix.[1] In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters.[2]
The term meromictic was coined by the Austrian Ingo Findenegg in 1935, apparently based on the older word holomictic. The concepts and terminology used in describing meromictic lakes were essentially complete following some additions by G. Evelyn Hutchinson in 1937.[3][4][5]

A created lake could allow sunshine though it's ice layer, but that would be quite attenuated. A substitute would be a device to grow very extreme Cyano-Bacteria in sunshine.

A Meromictic Lake could store both heat and cold in it, where salt gradients allow a colder layer above a warmer layer.

If we can get organic matter from Cyano-Bacteria, that may be mixed with regolith, and subjected to pyrolysis, perhaps from concentrating mirrors or an electric oven, to reduce the regolith which we might hope will contain significant amounts of Iron.

Such reduced regolith with a hoped-for content of Iron, could be put into the warm very salty anaerobic bottom waters of a lake. A corrosion process would produce dissolved Iron, and also Hydrogen.

Reduced regolith/iron could be stored dry and only added to the lake at a rate desired. The produced Hydrogen could be reacted with Oxygen if you had it, or even perhaps with Carbon Dioxide which could be obtained from the atmosphere of Mars. That reaction could involve biology and may produce Methane.

By continuous injection of Mars atmosphere into this lake, then it is possible that the gasses Nitrogen and Argon will build up and will at saturation bubble out of the solution.

It may be possible to precipitate an Iron containing material from the anerobic water that has dissolved water in it.

Blood Falls is a current example of a possible process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Falls
Quote:

Blood Falls is an outflow of an iron(III) oxide–tainted plume of saltwater, flowing from the tongue of Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of West Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land, East Antarctica.
Iron-rich hypersaline water sporadically emerges from small fissures in the ice cascades. The saltwater source is a subglacial pool of unknown size overlain by about 400 metres (1,300 ft) of ice, several kilometers from its tiny outlet at Blood Falls.

Image Quote:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ … Rejcek.jpg

I think this process is similar to an earlier Earth, and also to the production of
Bog Iron.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_iron
Quote:

Bog iron is a form of impure iron deposit that develops in bogs or swamps by the chemical or biochemical oxidation of iron carried in solution. In general, bog ores consist primarily of iron oxyhydroxides, commonly goethite (FeO(OH)).

Image Quote: Quote:

Bog ore

So, the Iron dissolved in anerobic brine might precipitate out of solution on contact with Oxygen which could be in the cold upper layers of the lake.

Oxygen could be gotten from the growth of Cyano-Bacteria, but to store it is some trouble. But we think that there is Perchlorate in the Mars soil. So, the soil could have the perchlorates and other salts washed out of it to put in the upper layers of a lake, and then the soil might be mixed with organic matter. Then the mix could be subjected to Pyrolysis, to create reduced regolith with some Iron content. I might like to see solar ovens used for the Pyrolysis, but electric ovens might be easier to use.

This could be put into the anerobic bottom of the lake to "Charge" the lake chemically.

While the Hydrogen result could be reacted with Oxygen, it might also be reacted with CO2.

Perhaps fuel cells could be run off of the fuels and Oxidizers available.

I would like to know if CO2 and Hydrogen could be reacted in a fuel cell.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (Yesterday 11:32:49)

Calliban · Yesterday 14:13:02

These are interesting ideas Void. We definitely need some creative approaches to steel production on Mars. If we have to reduce iron using electrolytically derived carbon monoxide, then each kg of molten iron requires 15.51kWh of electricity.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 6522003460

That is about the same energy intensity as aluminium on Earth. It isn't an attractive option unless electricity is cheap. Which it won't be for while to come. Using bulk sources of biomass like blue green algae is an attractive option. It will be easy enough to dry the material by exposing it to Martian atmospheric pressure. Human waste and refuse is something that could be used as well.

Last edited by Calliban (Yesterday 14:14:24)

Void · Yesterday 16:48:04

Here in this topic, I am sort of trying not to have a narrow focus, so then to attach various things to the Oxidation and Reduction of Iron. So, the device you revealed, is of interest as well.

It has now seemed to me that Iron has a bit of magic to it. It is the dividing line between Fusion and Fission, isn't it?

I am sure that there are ways to accelerate the rusting of Iron, but the process in a lake is a sort of macro machine, perhaps something like a battery.

So, then the process of the lake might give sustainability to endure dust storms, seasonal events, and I suppose machinery breakdowns.

I am also looking at the possibility that microbial mining could be in association with the major process of Oxidation or Reduction. It appears that Sulfur might be a substance to include in some cases: https://www.brunel.net/en-au/blog/minin … oorganisms
Quote:

Biomining, also known as bioleaching or microbial mining, is a process that uses microorganisms (referred to as ‘microbes’) to extract metals from ores and minerals. This approach is an alternative to traditional mining and is more environmentally friendly. The microorganisms involved in microbial mining are typically bacteria, archaea or fungi that have the ability to oxidise and solubilise metals from mineral ores.

So, then Iron might not be the only material in action. Hydrogen in the water from rusting of Iron, may give a fuel source to run the microbes that may do some action to an Oxidized or Reduced material.

The article suggests these substances could be mined:

Common metals gained from biomining:
Gold
Silver
Uranium
Nickel
Copper
Cobalt
Zinc

I would expect you to be interested in the Uranium.

While I have suggested mixing organic materials into regolith and then roasting the mix to reduce the regolith, I suppose that you could also simply add organic matter to such a lake and allow the organisms to use it against regolith.

As a practical matter, when I say lake, I probably mean more or less a canal system.

The source of organic matter could be an extreme microbe like Cyanobacteria, to grow in a minimally protected enclosure, under sunlight most likely.

But indeed, electrical organics might also do to help with some process.

In this post in another topic, I would suggest can be a source of large amounts of water to fill a canal system, while providing lots of pressurized and protected spaces: https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 88#p230288

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (Yesterday 17:04:10)

Calliban · Today 06:36:09

In biomining, we are replacing direct acid leaching with bacteria that excrete acids to do the same thing. It is an interesting approach. There are both direct and indirect methods. The direct method involves injecting the bacterìa into the ground in a solution containing their food source. The fluid is then withdrawn, ions are seperated by ion exchange membranes and the solution is reinjected along with fresh energy source (i.e acetate). In the indirect method, the bacteria are grown in a vat. They metabolise sugar or acetate producing an organic acid, which is then seperated and injected into the ground. I don't have a strong opinion of which is best. The indirect method allows bacteria to grow under more controlled conditions.

Many low grade uranium ores are mined using insitu acid leaching. So the method does come with operational experience. It will recover a lot of other metals along the way. The only problem I can see with doing this on Mars is the cold. The fluid must be heated prior to injection. Freezing point suppression with salts won't work, because brine becomes progressively more viscous at temperatures below zero. It may technically still be liquid, but its viscosity will be comparable to treacle.

Last edited by Calliban (Today 06:48:23)

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Iron Cycle on Mars and other worlds.(Materials Extraction)

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