Green Steel

Steel is essential for modern society. It is used in everything from cars and wind turbines to buildings and bridges. But making steel the conventional way emits a lot of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is one of the primary greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. In fact, steel-making is responsible for 8% of all man-made CO₂ emissions.

Steel is made from iron, and iron loves oxygen. So in its natural state iron binds with oxygen to form iron ore. To make steel, we need iron, not iron ore, which means that the oxygen has to be removed. That is normally done by burning coke (a form of coal) to produce carbon monoxide, which strips away the oxygen from the iron ore, leaving iron and CO₂. The CO₂ is of course released into the atmosphere.

Sweden has found another way. Instead of using carbon monoxide to convert iron ore into iron, they use hydrogen. When hydrogen is heated to 1,600° F it combines with the oxygen in the iron ore to form iron and H₂O—water. Sweden uses green energy to extract hydrogen from water and to heat the hydrogen to the required temperature.

But there are two problems. First, Sweden’s “green steel” currently costs about 25% more to produce than steel made using the conventional method. And second, the vast majority of steel worldwide—more than 99.5%—is produced using the conventional method. So unless things change very quickly, which seems unlikely, green steel won’t really help us avert disaster in the not-too-distant future because of climate change.[1]

 To learn more about climate change, and how it may be fulfilling biblical prophecy, read Chapter 11 of my book, Beyond Blind Faith, entitled “Apocalypse Soon.” You can read the entire chapter for free here. For more information on the books I’ve written, please go here.

[1] This blog entry is based in part on the article, “Green steel from Sweden,” in the May 9/16, 2022 edition of Time Magazine.