STEEL INDUSTRY EXPLORING NEW
CO2-REDUCING STEEL MAKING PROCESSES
MIT Professor Donald R. Sadoway Highlights Significant Steps Toward
Carbon-free Ironmaking

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) held an environmental briefing on Capitol Hill, highlighting the industry’s efforts to reduce its environmental footprint through research projects at universities around the country. The goal of these research projects is to reduce, and eventually eliminate, CO2 emissions from the steel making process.

“Despite strong achievements to date, America’s steel industry is committed to continually working to improve our environmental performance,” AISI Chairman-elect Ward J. “Tim” Timken, chairman of The Timken Company, said. “The industry has already reduced energy use per ton of steel shipped by 27 percent since the Kyoto baseline year of 1990, which also puts reduction by America’s steel sector of greenhouse gas emissions far below Kyoto standards. We are not complacent, however. We are actively investing in research and new technologies to sustain significant progress.”

As part of a joint program between AISI and the Department of Energy (DOE), research is currently underway at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), under the leadership of Professor Donald R. Sadoway of the Department of Materials Science Engineering, to produce iron by molten oxide electrolysis (MOE), which would generate no CO2 gases. At today’s briefing, Sadoway cautioned that the research is only in the beginning phases, but what has been demonstrated thus far is encouraging.

“At the laboratory scale, production of liquid iron and oxygen gas by electrolysis of iron oxide has been demonstrated,” said Sadoway. “This represents a significant first step towards carbon-free ironmaking by a technology that completely avoids emission of greenhouse gases from the smelter.”

Iron, small amounts of carbon and various other alloys -- depending on the customer’s requirements--are used to make steel. Ironmaking is currently the most energy-intensive step in the steelmaking process.

In addition to the MIT project, AISI has three other long-range projects that will have a positive impact on the environment. These three projects include: Ironmaking by Hydrogen Flash Smelting at the University of Utah; Geological Sequestration of CO2 at the University of Missouri-Rolla; and Integrating Steel Production with Mineral Sequestration at Columbia University. There are also several short-term projects being conducted by AISI and its members that will also have important environmental impacts.

AISI serves as the voice of the North American steel industry in the public policy arena and advances the case for steel in the marketplace as the preferred material of choice. AISI also plays a lead role in the development and application of new steels and steelmaking technology. AISI is comprised of 32 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace steelmakers, and 125 associate and affiliate members who are suppliers to or customers of the steel industry. AISI's member companies represent approximately 75 percent of both U.S. and North American steel capacity. For more news about steel and its applications, view AISI’s Web site at www.steel.org.