Among the rhetoric of climate change bingo and platitudes, there’s a term I’ve been hearing a lot at COP26 this week — green steel. But what is it, why does it matter, and what does it actually mean for us, the consumers and end-users? 

The global steel industry is one of the world’s largest emitters of carbon dioxide, representing approximately 7% of global CO2 emissions. Demand for fossil-free steel is growing substantially with solid interest from global market leaders in automotive, commercial vehicles, white goods, furniture, etc. And the most significant noise is therefore around “green steel”.

Traditionally, steel is made using a classic blast furnace. This emits an average of more than two tons of CO2 per ton.

Green steel aims to use a new manufacturing process to replace coking coal, traditionally needed for ore-based steelmaking, with renewable electricity and green hydrogen. As a result, the production of steel at the supplier level is CO2-free. 

According to Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, CEO and co-founder of Fortescue Future Industries, there are two key methods of green steel production:

His company is trialing both methods, but Forrest and his team are far from being the only innovators in the industry as there’s currently a lot of R&D going into creating fossil-free steel. 

One of the big players trying their hand at cracking the formula is HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology), a joint initiative between Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB, iron ore producer LKAB, and energy company Vattenfall.

Earlier this year, they made the world’s first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron at HYBRIT’s pilot plant in Luleå. While the production process differs from conventional manufacturing, fossil-free steel retains the properties of traditional steel.

But getting steel to act the same without emitting CO2 isn’t worth squat unless it actually replaces its polluting counterpart in manufacturing.

Keep reading on TheNextWeb.com