It is going to take some gigantic steps to decarbonise, the manufacture of steel – one of the planet’s most polluting industries and join the green revolution to save the planet. But we, at Steelmor, are here to tell you it’s happening… with the help of movers and shakers such as Elon Musk of SpaceX. So, watch this space!
Ecopreneurs Implement Green Steel Innovation
Musk is with the trailblazing Swedes and SSAB’s HYBRIT pilot plant, which is already producing the world’s first fossil-fuel-free steel. Instead of spewing out plumes of white-hot pig iron and more in the conventional steel manufacturing process, the pilot plant emits nothing but water vapour!
Bill Gates is another ecopreneur, who raised 50 million dollars in funding for his startup company, Boston Metal, intending to make carbon-zero steel.
Australia is on board with the Fortesque Metals Group, which is also in the process of building a pilot plant to investigate two ways of manufacturing steel without coal.
A Netherland-based EIT InnoEnergy’s hydrogen-based steel plant developed ‘a commercially scaled green steel operation called H2 Green Steel.’
The trouble is that to make any green steel innovation genuinely net-zero on the emissions scale, a renewable source of energy needs to be used to produce the hydrogen essential to steel manufacture.
To make that happen, three times more solar wind energy sources than what the world has to power a green steel industry. There are regions in Europe, Canada, and Australia, where renewable energy sources are abundant. It makes sense to fire up the case for green steel there. We will have to wait and see.
Three Cheers for Green Steel Innovation
There are notably three green steel innovation processes being favoured at present:
- CCS – carbon capture and storage
- MOE – molten oxide electrolysis
- HDR – hydrogen direct reduction
As the world keeps an eye on the moguls, tech-billionaires, and ecopreneurs, we salute all green steel innovations to date and can’t wait to see what happens in the years to come.
For all your steel inquiries and requirements, the friendly Steelmor team is on stand-by to assist you.
