Minnesota Joins Effort to Develop Zero Emissions Ironmaking and Ultra-Low Life Cycle Emissions Steelmaking
The Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) in Minnesota has received nearly $1.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop transformative technologies in the iron and steel industries. This funding is part of the Revolutionizing Ore to Steel to Impact Emissions (ROSIE) program managed by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E.
NRRI will be working on two projects as part of this initiative. The first project will evaluate Minnesota iron ore and underutilized iron resources for higher value iron products, as well as evaluate the final ore products for use in electric arc furnace steel production. The second project, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and Tufts University, aims to develop new technologies to reduce emissions in ironmaking and steelmaking processes.
By using low-grade Minnesota ores and innovative processes, these projects have the potential to reduce the cost of domestic steel production while decreasing total steel emissions by over 60 percent. This is significant, as the iron and steel industry currently accounts for approximately seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The goal of these projects is to meet the federal goal of reducing harmful emissions and imports of iron and steel products. If successful, the novel ironmaking technologies being developed could lead to a reduction of U.S. emissions by over 65 million metric tonnes of CO2 annually and global emissions by over 2.9 gigaton annually.
The work being done by NRRI and its partners is crucial in addressing the environmental impact of the iron and steel industry. By developing cleaner and more sustainable technologies, they are paving the way for a more environmentally friendly future for steel production.
