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HermesTheMessenger t1_j5pbtbn wrote

[corrections appreciated]

As I understand it, running high temperature furnaces needed to smelt metals (new or replacement) currently requires fossil fuels (usually coal). That isn't going to be an easy problem to solve. Maybe use electric furnaces to lower the delta between air temperature and the desired temperature, and then use fossil fuels to bridge the gap?

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Swecular t1_j5pg049 wrote

A big part of the emissions don't actually come from heating up the smelters, but for reducing the iron oxide into iron. Here in Sweden there is a project aiming to replace the coal with local, electrically produced hydrogen gas which will reduce the iron without the emissions of CO2.

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tinny66666 t1_j5qsd36 wrote

It's already solved, technically speaking. There are several companies already producing green steel, which only make about 5% of the greenhouse gases in production. So the question comes down to cost, not feasibility. Currently green steel costs about 20-30% more than traditional steel. Given these are really just pilot plants and the cost isn't orders of magnitude more expensive, it's not unreasonable to expect green steel to become price-competitive in a few decades. Some (few) companies will wear the extra cost for PR reasons, but it's a hard sell right now. Edit: There may be carbon offsetting options available in some cases to account for the extra cost, so these green steel companies may already be somewhat cost-competitive.

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