Electric arc furnaces for lower-carbon steel production?
…scrap steel, with 85% lower CO2 emissions than primary steel production. Our base case model yields a 15% IRR at $475/ton steel prices. However, the timing is flexible. Hence the…
Bill of materials: electronic devices and data-centers?
…Steel is the joint largest material exposure for electronic devices, although this is unsurprising, as steel is the most-used structural material on the planet, and in digital devices as well,…
Decarbonized supply chains: first invent the universe?
…was a button you could press, somewhere in a steel mill, with a big shiny label that said “decarbonize steel”. The reality in our model (below) is that CO2 emissions…
Wooden wind turbines?
…is the cost of steel and the remainder is largely in fabrication, transport and installation. Moreover, producing 300 tons of steel likely has a CO2 footprint of 450T (data here)….
Blue steel: construction boom?
The DRI+EAF pathway already underpins 6% of global steel output, with 50% lower CO2 than blast furnaces. But could IRA incentives encourage another boom here? Blue hydrogen can reduce CO2…
Peak commodities: everything, everywhere, all at once?
…demand in abundant global commodities are surprisingly hard to find. The Iron Age officially ended in AD43 when the Romans brought new technology to Britannia, yet global iron/steel demand remains…
Nature based solutions to climate change?
…in the ocean (note here), blue carbon (here), savanna management (note here), biochar (note here) and most controversially, ocean iron fertilization (“give me half a tanker of iron and I…
Battery cathode active materials and manufacturing?
Lithium ion batteries famously have cathodes containing lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt, aluminium and/or iron phosphate. But how are these cathode active materials manufactured? This data-file gathers specific details from technical…
Bulk shipping: cost breakdown?
…tonnage (dwt) of 4,000 – 400,000 tons. This is c50% of all global trade by mass. Of this dry bulk, c25% is iron ore, 20-25% is coal, c10% is grain,…
Bioleaching: case studies and examples?
Bioleaching uses bacteria to metabolize insoluble sulfides and iron complexes. It produces 20% of the world’s copper, and other metals; with 50% lower capex, at least 50% less CO2 and…