“We at Cleveland-Cliffs acknowledge that one of the most important issues impacting our planet is climate change. The American steel industry is one of the cleanest and most energy efficient in the world, and therefore the utilization of steel made in the USA is a decisively positive move to protect the planet against massive pollution embedded in the steel produced in other countries,” said Cliffs chairman and chief executive Lourenco Goncalves. 

As part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Cliffs said its Burns Harbor personnel will collaborate with two technology partners on an engineering and design study of a potential carbon capture project. 

Cliffs said the project would be an industrial-scale solution to capture greenhouse gases from blast furnace operations. 

Also, the company promised to evaluate the use of hydrogen in its new hot briquetted iron plant in Toledo, Ohio. Cliffs said that it could replace up to 30% of the plant’s natural gas consumption with hydrogen without any modifications. 

“With limited equipment modifications and investments, we could increase hydrogen usage up to 70% and reduce over 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year,” it said.
 
However, the company said it would evaluate partnering with hydrogen producers to replace natural gas use when hydrogen becomes commercially available in significant quantities.