Can we melt steel in a clean way?
Transforming the world to a low carbon future will involve radically changing the industrial and manufacturing sectors. The challenge is: GHG emissions from certain industrial sectors will be the hardest to reduce.
Moving industrial processes to low carbon has several challenges; first these processes require high energy densities, and many of them rely on low energy costs to maintain business continuity, as well as reliable high temperature energy sources. Renewable energy sources are available to the industrial sector, however, electricity costs become a limiting factor for certain processes that require large amounts of energy at high densities and high temperatures. Some companies are developing new technologies using biofuels, and high temperature solar[1], among others, however the cost competitiveness of these solutions are far from the edge of feasibility.
The biggest industrial GHG emitters such as steel, cement and chemical are also amongst the hardest industries to transform to low carbon. The steel, cement and glass industries are the most challenging, followed by aluminum, chemicals and other metal processing industries.
Steel is one of the most important materials when it comes to constructing infrastructure. This includes roads, bridges, railways, and the structure of buildings of most cities around the world. Steel…
