The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced an agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to initiate “A Technical Feasibility Study of Steelmaking by Molten Oxide Electrolysis.” MIT will examine Molten Oxide Electrolysis (MOE), technology in which metal oxide feedstock is converted to liquid metal and oxygen gas. No CO or CO2 is produced during the conversion process.

“Molten Oxide Electrolysis in conjunction with carbon-free electricity will usher in the era of sustainable metallurgy,” said Professor Donald R. Sadoway, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. “Depending on the extent of success of the project, this research could break major new ground in terms of CO2 emissions reductions.”

“MIT’s work is being performed under Phase I — ’Concept Discovery and Assessment’ of AISI’s CO2 Breakthrough Program to develop revolutionary steelmaking technologies with little or no CO2 emissions,” said Andrew G. Sharkey III, President and CEO of AISI. “This is AISI’s fourth CO2 breakthrough project awarded under the AISI/DOE Technology Roadmap Program. MIT’s work will play an integral role in helping us understand totally new steelmaking concepts”.

MIT will assess technical feasibility of the Molten Oxide Electrolysis process at the bench scale while determining optimum values of process operating parameters. For the first time, advanced computational methods will be enlisted in the search for an inert anode material with a superior ability to sustain oxygen evolution. MIT aims to develop a fully functional laboratory-scale electrolysis cell that produces iron to specification as well as by-product oxygen.

With a research budget of $529.5 million for fiscal year 2004, MIT is one of the leading research universities in the country. MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering is known as a world leader in its field, based on the high caliber of its academic program, its faculty, and its students. The Department is ranked No. 1 in Materials Science in the nation at both the graduate and undergraduate levels by US News and World Report. The Department’s annual research budget is $18 million, of which almost one third comes from industry.

AISI is a non-profit association of North American companies engaged in the iron and steel industry. The Institute serves as the voice of the North American steel industry, speaking out on behalf of its members in the public policy arena and advancing 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.