US funds $28mn iron, steel decarbonization

The US Department of Energy (DOE) released plans to invest $28mn towards decarbonizing iron and steel production for 13 projects spanning nine states.

The DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will manage the projects under the Revolutionizing Ore to Steel to Impact Emissions (ROSIE) program. The projects will focus on advance zero-process emission ironmaking and ultra-low life cycle emissions steelmaking.

Funding will be split between multiple universities and manufacturing companies.

States receiving funding include California ($4.01mn), Colorado ($2.87mn), Georgia ($2.84mn), Illinois ($3mn), Massachusetts ($6.16mn), Minnesota ($2.8mn), Nevada ($2.1mn), Pennsylvania ($760,000) and Utah ($3.48mn).

The iron and steel industry currently accounts for 7pc of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 11pc of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with demand projected to rise 40pc by 2050, according to ARPA-E.

Following projected metrics by ROSIE, US CO2 emissions could decreased by 65mn tonnes (t), or 1pc. Global emissions could be cut as much as 2.9 gigatonnes, or 5.5pc.

By Karly Lamm