Woburn Massachusetts based green technology developer Boston Metal has developed a technology called Molten Oxide Electrolysis that circumvents all limitations in traditional steel making. The Molten Oxide Electrolysis process uses renewable electricity to convert crude iron ore directly into high purity molten iron. This one step process avoids CO2 emissions from primary steel production and does not generate waste, offering a simple, scalable, and truly decarbonized solution.Global Decarbonization Requirements ComparisonRequirement 1: While technologies like NG DRI and CCS reduce emissions significantly by 30% and 80% compared to coal-processes, respectively, they are insufficient to reach 100% global decarbonization. MOE is a zero-CO2 emission process that uses direct electrolysis of iron oxide to produce high-purity iron plus oxygen, enabling full global decarbonization of the steel industry.Requirement 2: Today’s coal-based steel production uses the full range of traded iron ore grades. To serve the entire global market, any technology must be able to use the same range of feedstocks. Processes like NG-DRI-EAF and H2-DRI-EAF are limited to only high-purity premium iron ore feedstock, about 3% of global iron ore supply, severely limiting the total fraction of the global market they can address with an extremely high-cost input. Conversely, technologies like BF-BOF with CCS can use all grades of ore but do not fundamentally eliminate CO2 emissions. Iron production using MOE can use all traded ore qualities, demonstrated with purity less than 58% iron, ensuring that this technology that has the potential to serve the entire global steel market.Requirement 3: Be cost-competitive without subsidies. While there will continue to be improvements in the cost of CCS, it will always be a cost-adder on top of the price of steel, about 25% increase to levelized cost of steel, and will never compete on cost in the absence of subsidies. NG-DRI and H2-DRI are more cost-competitive but are still more expensive than coal-based steel thus incurring a green premium that will limit widespread adoption. A simplified MOE process reduces the energy and environmental burden of steelmaking by reducing the incumbent multi-step process to a single step. This process can minimize energy inputs, improve process efficiencies, and reduce the physical footprint required for steel production. As such, MOE is projected to be by 15% lower cost than coal-based steel without subsidies. Investment to transition MOE into commercial production will create a long-term decarbonization solution that will continue to grow in market share based on commercial drivers, enabling the transition to 100% global decarbonization regardless of future events.Requirement 4: Be capable of global deployment through a modular, incrementally scalable pathway. The steel industry is extremely conservative due to historically low profit margins, long investment cycles, capital-intensive infrastructure, and competition from unregulated international markets. This makes it very difficult to get this industry to invest in new technologies that require megaton-scale to be cost-competitive, such as H2-DRI and CCS. MOE uses a modular reactor design, similar to that used for aluminum smelting, which can be deployed in increments of less than 100,000 tonnes per year. This minimizes the barrier to adoption and enables MOE to serve the entire market when each organization is ready to transition as expanded capacity and even retrofits in existing primary and secondary steelmaking facilities across the US, as well as new MOE plant construction at 1 million tonne scale.Boston Metal’s MOE technology is at an inflection point in its technical validation and subsequent scaling. Through a combination of public and private investment, Boston Metal has validated MOE to the industrial scale. However, MOE must be demonstrated at full manufacturing scale, with the complexity of the real world, before the steel industry will begin to invest in global deployment.
Woburn Massachusetts based green technology developer Boston Metal has developed a technology called Molten Oxide Electrolysis that circumvents all limitations in traditional steel making. The Molten Oxide Electrolysis process uses renewable electricity to convert crude iron ore directly into high purity molten iron. This one step process avoids CO2 emissions from primary steel production and does not generate waste, offering a simple, scalable, and truly decarbonized solution.Global Decarbonization Requirements ComparisonRequirement 1: While technologies like NG DRI and CCS reduce emissions significantly by 30% and 80% compared to coal-processes, respectively, they are insufficient to reach 100% global decarbonization. MOE is a zero-CO2 emission process that uses direct electrolysis of iron oxide to produce high-purity iron plus oxygen, enabling full global decarbonization of the steel industry.Requirement 2: Today’s coal-based steel production uses the full range of traded iron ore grades. To serve the entire global market, any technology must be able to use the same range of feedstocks. Processes like NG-DRI-EAF and H2-DRI-EAF are limited to only high-purity premium iron ore feedstock, about 3% of global iron ore supply, severely limiting the total fraction of the global market they can address with an extremely high-cost input. Conversely, technologies like BF-BOF with CCS can use all grades of ore but do not fundamentally eliminate CO2 emissions. Iron production using MOE can use all traded ore qualities, demonstrated with purity less than 58% iron, ensuring that this technology that has the potential to serve the entire global steel market.Requirement 3: Be cost-competitive without subsidies. While there will continue to be improvements in the cost of CCS, it will always be a cost-adder on top of the price of steel, about 25% increase to levelized cost of steel, and will never compete on cost in the absence of subsidies. NG-DRI and H2-DRI are more cost-competitive but are still more expensive than coal-based steel thus incurring a green premium that will limit widespread adoption. A simplified MOE process reduces the energy and environmental burden of steelmaking by reducing the incumbent multi-step process to a single step. This process can minimize energy inputs, improve process efficiencies, and reduce the physical footprint required for steel production. As such, MOE is projected to be by 15% lower cost than coal-based steel without subsidies. Investment to transition MOE into commercial production will create a long-term decarbonization solution that will continue to grow in market share based on commercial drivers, enabling the transition to 100% global decarbonization regardless of future events.Requirement 4: Be capable of global deployment through a modular, incrementally scalable pathway. The steel industry is extremely conservative due to historically low profit margins, long investment cycles, capital-intensive infrastructure, and competition from unregulated international markets. This makes it very difficult to get this industry to invest in new technologies that require megaton-scale to be cost-competitive, such as H2-DRI and CCS. MOE uses a modular reactor design, similar to that used for aluminum smelting, which can be deployed in increments of less than 100,000 tonnes per year. This minimizes the barrier to adoption and enables MOE to serve the entire market when each organization is ready to transition as expanded capacity and even retrofits in existing primary and secondary steelmaking facilities across the US, as well as new MOE plant construction at 1 million tonne scale.Boston Metal’s MOE technology is at an inflection point in its technical validation and subsequent scaling. Through a combination of public and private investment, Boston Metal has validated MOE to the industrial scale. However, MOE must be demonstrated at full manufacturing scale, with the complexity of the real world, before the steel industry will begin to invest in global deployment.
