The Unsolved Problems Holding Back Steel Decarbonization at Scale
Steel mills face a physics problem disguised as an economics problem. Green hydrogen and electric arc furnaces work in pilot plants. But can they work at the volumes and costs that keep industrial economies running?
Steel decarbonization is not a technology problem anymore. It is a systems problem. By April 2026, we have working solutions: hydrogen reduction, direct reduced iron (DRI) produced from renewables, electric arc furnaces powered by clean grids, even some early carbon capture projects at blast furnace sites. What we do not have is a coherent answer to the question of how an integrated steelmaker—one running integrated blast furnaces and basic oxygen converters—transitions from 1.8 tons of CO2 per ton of crude steel to something closer to 0.3 tons without abandoning the economics that keep steel affordable and available. That gap is where the real problems live.
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