Outdoors the small Swedish metropolis of Boden, surrounded by a forest, a large inexperienced metal plant is underneath development. By the tip of subsequent yr, if all goes as deliberate, the manufacturing unit will start making metal for purchasers like Ikea and Mercedes-Benz, utilizing hydrogen made out of renewable vitality as an alternative of coal. By the tip of the last decade, the plant plans to provide 5 million tons of inexperienced metal a yr.
That’s nonetheless a tiny fraction of worldwide metal manufacturing: The world makes almost 2 billion metric tons of metal every year, to be used in the whole lot from high-rises and wind generators to automobiles and workplace chairs. Proper now, manufacturing is a large supply of emissions. Steelmaking is answerable for greater than 2.6 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions yearly, almost 3 times as a lot because the aviation business. However firms similar to H2 Green Steel, the Swedish startup, wish to show that the business can remodel.
The development website [Photo: H2 Green Steel]
The startup, which introduced this week that it raised more than $5 billion in new financing, is racing to construct its resolution as shortly as doable. “Others have chosen to begin with pilot-scale operations,” says Karin Hallstan, who heads communications for H2 Inexperienced Metal. “Our view is that velocity is of the essence and the world doesn’t want one other pilot. It’s time for motion at scale as an alternative. The expertise is confirmed and mature, and we proved the enterprise case and the demand for inexperienced metal. That’s the reason we’re going straight for large-scale manufacturing.”

Idea rendering of the ultimate facility [Rendering: H2 Green Steel]
Most international metal manufacturing begins by placing iron ore from mines into large blast furnaces, the place coal is added to create a chemical response and make iron. “It’s about as soiled as you’ll anticipate,” says Hilary Lewis, metal director at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit targeted on serving to heavy business decarbonize. “Every blast furnace is roughly equal to a coal-fired energy plant.” Some metal mills have a couple of blast furnace. Within the furnaces, the chemical response makes CO2. The furnace additionally must be extraordinarily scorching, and that warmth often additionally comes from burning fossil fuels. The “pig iron” that comes out of the furnace then goes in one other kind of furnace to course of it into metal, creating much more CO2 emissions.
A less-common course of makes use of one thing referred to as a DRI furnace, which operates at a decrease temperature and often runs on pure gasoline or coal—however may also run on hydrogen. H2 Inexperienced Metal will probably be making inexperienced hydrogen at its plant, which means that it’ll use renewable electrical energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. (Most hydrogen as we speak is made out of fossil fuels.) After it makes iron with its hydrogen-powered DRI furnace, it would course of the iron into metal in one other furnace that runs fully on electrical energy. A small quantity of carbon is used on this step, however the complete course of cuts the emissions from steelmaking by 95%.
The tactic has labored in smaller demonstrations. Close by in Sweden, a challenge referred to as HYBRIT delivered the primary pattern of “fossil-free metal” to Volvo in 2021. The metal firm SSAB, one of many companions behind that challenge, plans to deliver a much bigger quantity of inexperienced metal to the market by 2026. ArcelorMittal, a worldwide metal large, additionally has inexperienced metal initiatives in improvement, together with a metal mill in Portugal that goals to have a zero-emissions manufacturing course of in place by 2025. However it will likely be troublesome for the whole business to remodel.
The primary problem: There isn’t a lot green hydrogen accessible as we speak. Making the inexperienced hydrogen will even require large quantities of renewable electrical energy, so extra renewables should be added to the grid. DRI furnaces additionally want high-purity iron ore, which isn’t accessible in all places. (It’s doable to enhance lower-grade ore, nevertheless it takes further steps.) Town of Boden is well-suited for the expertise—there’s ample inexpensive renewable vitality within the space, and the proper iron ore is offered. Nonetheless, even with the proper situations, the method is dear. H2 Inexperienced Metal costs its prospects 25% to 30% extra for its metal.
However many purchasers are prepared to pay a inexperienced premium for now. A number of massive automakers have signed contracts committing to purchase from H2 Inexperienced Metal as quickly as manufacturing begins. Bigger commitments from producers to purchase inexperienced metal would make a distinction for the business, says Lewis. The distinction in value for shoppers will not be noticeable. “The excellent news is most individuals don’t purchase metal,” she says. “They purchase merchandise that use some quantity of metal, like a automobile.” A automobile makes use of round a ton of metal, however utilizing the inexperienced model may imply that customers pay solely $100 extra for the car.
The EU has an emissions buying and selling system that presently doesn’t require metal producers to pay for all of their emissions, however firms will probably be required to pay extra in 2026, and the quantity will hold ramping up till they pay for 100% of their emissions in 2034. “That signifies that soiled brown metal will turn into dearer, lastly starting to stage the enjoying discipline for cleantech options,” says Hallstan. “The EU regulation could possibly be used as a mannequin for different components of the world as effectively, as a approach to velocity up the shift to sustainably-produced metal.” The U.S. is utilizing a carrot somewhat than a stick—funding from the Inflation Discount Act helps assist each inexperienced hydrogen and new clear industrial services, which might doubtlessly embrace new inexperienced metal vegetation.
Different promising new expertise avoids the usage of hydrogen fully. Electra, one early-stage startup, dissolves iron ore after which makes use of electrolysis to drag out pure iron. The method can use low-grade ores and works at a low temperature, saving vitality. Boston Metal, an MIT spinoff, makes use of electrolysis to warmth iron ore to 1,600 levels Celsius, creating liquid metal. “There’s no carbon anymore within the course of for us,” says Adam Rauwerdink, senior vice chairman of enterprise improvement at Boston Steel. “Electrons do all the work.” On the firm’s Boston-area lab, the expertise runs indoors. “In the identical constructing as our workplaces, you’re pouring molten metal, and also you’re emitting simply oxygen,” he says.

[Photo: Boston Metal]
If the method runs on renewable vitality, the metal is zero-emissions. The identical method can be utilized to extract different priceless metals from mining waste. The corporate is beginning first with a challenge in Brazil that makes niobium, which sells for round 100 occasions extra per kilogram than metal, serving to Boston Steel deploy the tech quicker whereas it prepares for the metal market. The expertise is modular—it’s doable to deploy a handful of the corporate’s items, which might every be as massive as a delivery container, or put 200 collectively to make a full-size metal plant. The primary demonstration plant, deliberate for 2026, will probably be a smaller unit at an present metal manufacturing unit.
Recycling extra metal may also assist, since scraps could be processed in electrical arc furnaces working on renewable vitality. However as a result of there’s a restricted quantity of scrap accessible, we’ll additionally want large quantities of latest iron, and each DRI and electrolysis tech might help present it.
It should take time for the world’s a whole lot of metal vegetation to remodel, partly as a result of the gear that exists now can final for many years. However each 15 to twenty years, conventional blast furnaces must undergo an costly upkeep step that prices a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars}, and corporations might change to DRI expertise as an alternative of constructing the restore. (Whereas carbon seize at conventional metal mills may also assist, it doesn’t work completely and doesn’t do something for air air pollution or upstream emissions from extracting fossil fuels.) China, which produces nearly all of the world’s metal, isn’t transferring as shortly to transition to hydrogen as Europe.
Regardless of the challenges, it’s doable to decarbonize the business by the center of the century, says Jeffrey Rissman, who leads work on heavy business on the consulting agency Vitality Innovation and wrote a brand new e-book referred to as Zero-Carbon Industry: Transformative Technologies and Policies to Achieve Sustainable Prosperity. There’s sufficient time to construct new vegetation. The most important key, Rissman says, will probably be ensuring that sufficient new renewable vitality is offered to assist the method.
The latest expertise, like Boston Steel’s, may in the end be the very best resolution, says Lewis from Industrious Labs, as a result of it may possibly keep away from the problem of getting to make sufficient inexperienced hydrogen. However as a result of DRI furnaces can run on hydrogen now, it is smart for firms to maneuver ahead with it. “I believe we should be making investments as we speak,” she says. “And I believe there will probably be loads of alternative for a few of these subsequent era applied sciences sooner or later.”