Steelmaking is a carbon-intensive process
Steelmaking with hydrogen faces supply problem – Ieefa
Scarce high-grade iron ore supply is a potential barrier to the widespread use of green hydro-gen in the decarbonisation of steelmaking
The availability of high-grade iron ore is a potential barrier to the uptake of hydrogen in steelmaking, according to a new study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (Ieefa). There are two main production processes for making steel from iron ore. The most widespread is the integrated blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace process (BF-BOF), in which iron oxide is reduced to iron inside the blast furnace with coke (derived from coking coal) as a reducing agent. The product of this process is then turned into steel in an oxygen furnace. This method was responsible for 73pc of global steel production in 2020. A second method is to directly reduce iron without melting a
Also in this section
23 December 2025
Government backing and inflow of private capital point to breakthrough year for rising star of the country’s clean energy sector
19 December 2025
The hydrogen industry faces an important choice: coordinated co-evolution or patched-together piecemeal development. The way forward is integrated co-evolution, and freight corridors are a good example
10 December 2025
Project developer Meld Energy ready to accelerate 100MW project in Humber region after securing investment from energy transition arm of private equity firm Schroders Capital
9 December 2025
BP and Engie abandon large-scale green hydrogen projects in Gulf state as developers in all regions continue to struggle with lack of firm offtake
