According to an announcement from Missouri University of Science and Technology, professor and AIST president Dr. Ron O’Malley and co-investigator Dr. Sridhar Seetharaman, of the Colorado School of Mines, will use the funding to further explore a production route that combines hydrogen-based iron reduction and electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking within the context of a renewably generated electrical grid. 

“The integration of this (process route) into the U.S. supply chain would be a proof-of-concept that the steel industry is ready for decarbonization,” said O’Malley. 

O’Malley is the F. Kenneth Iverson Endowed Chair of Steelmaking Technologies and director of the Kent D. Peaslee Steel Manufacturing Research Center at Missouri S&T. Seetharaman is the associate vice president of research and professor of metallurgical and materials engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. 

They said they believe the steel industry can decarbonize by incorporating renewably generated hydrogen in to the ironmaking process. But more research is needed, O’Malley said. 

“While the use of hydrogen to produce iron from ore is proven, the impact of dynamically rebalanced reducing gas mixtures (used in the direct reduction-EAF route) on the steelmaking must be assessed,” O’Malley said. “This requires a closure of several knowledge gaps in ironmaking and EAF steelmaking.”

The researchers are working with several industry partners, including Danieli, voestalpine, Steel Dynamics Inc., Nucor Corp., Gerdau, Praxair Inc. and Air Liquide.