Software and Steel: the Unexpected Tag Team in Reducing Carbon Emissions
“Decisions made by humans, but informed by machines” — this is how host Peet Denny and this week’s guest Osas Omoigiade on the Cool Hominids podcast describe the work being done by Deep Meta, an amazing startup looking at innovative ways to radically reduce the contributions of the steel industry to the climate emergency.
But why should we be concerned about steel production in the first place? To start with, the iron and steel industry is responsible for around 9% of global CO2 emissions. The process to create steel is intense and uses a lot of energy. The largest plants in the world use the ‘blast furnace route’, starting with iron ore (typically FE2O3), and removing the oxygen to leave the remaining iron. However, during this process the oxygen binds with carbon to produce CO2 which is emitted into the atmosphere.
We’re using steel in everything, from buildings, cars and trains to planes, bridges and buses, which means we’re making a lot of it. Imagine building the Empire State Building 30,000 times over. That’s how much steel we’re producing each year; roughly 1.8 billion tonnes. Now imagine throwing 25% of that away. Sounds wasteful? It is. But it’s also what we’re currently doing in the steel industry on a global scale, where not all steel we produce is used due to errors. Current production processes also result in more CO2 emissions than steel — for every ton of steel produced, 1.89 tons of CO2 is emitted.
So, with all of that in mind, the key questions then become:
- Is it possible for the steel industry to decarbonise?
- How can efficiencies that reduce the amount of wasted steel be achieved?
- Are there alternative materials that can be used as a substitute for steel?
Revolutionary ideas in this space will be key to answering these questions and critical to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Demand for steel will continue to exist, but without significant shifts, it could become more tricky to achieve the targets set. Whilst CO2 emissions have been relatively stable, the Net Emissions targets would see them falling between 2020 and 2030.
Direct CO2 intensity of steel production in the Net Zero Scenario, 2018–2030
Source: https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel
That is why startups like Deep Meta are so incredible — they’re looking at how to solve the high levels of waste in the steel industry through software that helps steel plants reduce the amount of errors in the production process. Reliant on existing sensors and data that the plants have already been collecting, Deep Meta’s software can help bring relatively quick and impactful change without requiring plants to make significant changes to their processes.
Rizome is another exciting startup, who are working on alternatives to steel, specifically bamboo, as a building material. The benefits of bamboo are twofold — firstly as an alternative to steel and secondly as an eco-friendly alternative, as it draws 10 times more carbon out of the atmosphere than trees.
Looking at making changes to the production process to reduce emissions, Hybrit (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology), based in Sweden, is using fossil-free electricity and hydrogen to make steel, significantly reducing the levels of CO2 emissions in the value chain. Hybrit claims to have the potential to reduce Sweden’s CO2 emissions by at least 10 percent.
But alongside innovation from startups, can we as a society start to think about day to day steel usage in a more innovative way? Could we lessen the demand for steel if we shifted some of our daily behaviours, for example using more sustainable routes, cycling, walking or using public transport? The answer to that may depend on where you live and the availability of alternative options.
Understanding the ways in which steel demand, usage and production is currently affecting our planet is important. We may have a long way to go before we have the answer, but we’re already pretty inspired by the transformative change we’re seeing in this industry.
We’d love to hear your thoughts —have you made any changes to your behaviour to reduce your reliance on products made using steel?
