Creating predictable demand for genuinely low-carbon steel is urgent. If properly designed, low-carbon steel credits can create a lead market for green steel and secure a future for a green steel industry in Europe. Many green steel projects have been announced across Europe in recent years. However, some are facing … [continued]
MIDDLETOWN, OH — Cleveland-Cliffs and the Department of Energy announced plans to continue the use of coal at Cleveland-Cliffs’ Middletown Works steel mill today, abandoning previously announced plans to transition toward clean energy. The company was originally selected in March 2024 for up to $500 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) … [continued]
If designed properly, low-carbon steel credits under the EU car CO₂ standards can create a lead market for green steel produced in Europe. Given the automotive sector’s large steel demand and purchasing power, the mechanism could support the scale-up and commercialisation of green steel projects, strengthen Europe’s industrial base and … [continued]
Washington, DC — Yesterday, U.S. Steel announced it will invest nearly $2 billion to build a direct reduced iron (DRI) facility at Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Arkansas. The DRI will provide a cleaner input to feed into the company’s electric arc furnaces that produce steel. Nippon Steel, the parent company of … [continued]
Google Gemini generated a strategic infographic visualization of Germany's policy path forward from the Hydrogen Option Gate, illustrating the shift from broad option preservation to targeted industrial application and electrification.
Germany now has a pressurized segment of its hydrogen backbone that is physically complete and operationally empty. There are no connected suppliers feeding hydrogen into it, no contracted customers drawing hydrogen out, and no credible near-term pathway to change either of those facts. This is no longer a question of … [continued]
Google Gemini generated this infographic illustrating the economic differences between green iron and green steel production.
The idea of a European green steel premium has become widely accepted over the past several years. It rests on the belief that Europe can decarbonize its steel sector domestically, absorb higher production costs through a mix of policy support and buyer willingness, and maintain industrial competitiveness while doing so. … [continued]
The US startup Boston Metal is bringing its new one-pot green steel process to the global industrial decarbonization movement, along with a process for recovering valuable metals from mining waste.
ChatGPT-generated image of a modern biomass-to-biomethane facility, where organic waste is processed into renewable gas for negative-emission steelmaking pathways
Recent adjustments to my projections for global steel demand through 2100, reflecting a significant slowdown in Chinese infrastructure and cement consumption, have sharpened my economic focus on competing new steelmaking technologies. With lower growth trajectories for steel firmly established, every ton produced in the coming decades will increasingly face stringent … [continued]
ChatGPT-generated illustration of a molten oxide electrolysis cell, showing iron ore input, molten oxide electrolyte, liquid iron collection, and oxygen gas evolution
In my recent reassessment of global steel demand trajectories, particularly in light of declining cement consumption driven by a slowing Chinese construction sector, I’m revisiting several zero-carbon steel production pathways. One that stands out for its unique electrochemical elegance and considerable engineering complexity is molten oxide electrolysis (MOE). It’s an … [continued]
ChatGPT generated this panoramic image of a modern biomethane production facility, illustrating the infrastructure needed to scale up electrified biomethane DRI steelmaking
This week, I had the opportunity to participate in TenneT’s scenario planning for its ambitious 2050 Target Grid project. The session was notable for including Professor Heleen de Coninck, one of the Netherlands’ experts on industrial decarbonization and climate change. Her involvement emphasized the critical importance of identifying scalable pathways … [continued]
