![]() Other firms are continuing the use of coal, but are considering retrofitting facilities with carbon capture devices to negate emissions. In Brazil, some steel mills are mixing in biochar, which is made from agricultural waste. Companies are piloting systems across Europe that use hydrogen in furnaces in lieu of coal. ![]() The new funding will allow it to build a demonstration plant in Woburn that can produce 25,000 tons of metal per year so far, the company has made only several tons of steel in total.īoston Metal’s approach is one of a handful of breakthrough technologies with the potential to decarbonize steelmaking. Tadeu Carneiro, the company’s CEO, said Boston Metal is “ushering in a new era of metallurgy.” The nine-year-old startup raised $50 million last month from a slew of investors, including the Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy Ventures and the venture capital arm of Australia’s BHP (formerly Broken Hill Proprietary), one of the world’s biggest mining companies. The process doesn’t create greenhouse gas emissions, and when powered with renewable electricity, can be completely emissions-free. Boston Metal, an outfit spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, uses electric currents to heat iron ore into a bright orange-white liquid, which converts into metal and cools as gray steel blocks. Outside Boston, in the industrial suburb of Woburn, one company is working to replace coal with electrons. In recent months, the world’s three top producers-Europe’s ArcelorMittal, China’s Baowu Steel, and Japan’s Nippon Steel-committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, echoing targets set in their home countries. Doing so is essential to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and staving off most of the worst effects of climate change, experts say. Steelmakers worldwide are facing mounting pressure from government regulators and consumers to decarbonize operations. ![]() As a result, the industry accounts for roughly 8 percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to McKinsey and Company, as well as a toxic soup of air pollutants. The furnaces that melt iron ore to make steel consume vast amounts of coal. Steel companies make nearly 2 billion tons of high-strength material every year for bridges, buildings, railways, and roads. But one major coal consumer-the steel industry-is finding it harder to kick its habit. Coal’s grip on the global electricity sector is loosening as more utilities and companies invest in renewable energy.
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