Think about the following questions as you watch the video

1. 00:32 If we can cut greenhouse gases out of the steel manufacturing process, what percent of overall emissions will we eliminate?
2. 00:48 What does the Boston Metal executive mean when he says, “No one is going to pay a premium for green metal?” What three characteristics must green metal have to be competitive?
3. 01:06 Explain the conventional process for making iron–which is the first step in making steel–including the amount of carbon emissions produced.
4. 01:43 How does molten oxide electrolysis, Boston Metal’s steel manufacturing process, make iron–which is the first step in making steel–without carbon emissions?

00:05: Manufacturing steel is one of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
00:08: If it could be done in a carbon-free way, it would revolutionize the industry and help fight climate change.
00:11: There’s a company in Boston trying to do just that.
00:30: If we can cut greenhouse gas emissions from steel, that’s almost 10% of C02 emissions.
00:32: That’s worth going after.
00:35: Boston Metal’s mission is to manufacture metals in a clean way, and a competitive way.
00:38: No one’s going to pay a premium for green metal.
00:41: It’s got to be better, cleaner, cheaper.
00:44: Conventional process to make steel, it’s a chemical reaction.
00:50: The blast of air goes in, passes over a form of carbon, and converts to a carbon-monoxide gas.
00:57: And that gas reduces the iron oxide to iron.
00:59: So, for every ton of iron you make, you make several tons of CO2.
01:03: Boston Metal uses a process called molten oxide electrolysis.
01:05: It uses electricity instead of using carbon from the coal.
01:09: You got iron oxide.
01:12: You dissolve that into a mix of other oxides.
01:16: And by the passage of electric current the iron oxide is decomposed, and it produces liquid iron.
01:19: The oxygen out of the iron oxide comes off as oxygen gas.
01:21: The production of CO2 is zero.
01:25: The electricity can be produced sustainably without CO2 emissions.
01:28: We’ve got ample data that indicate that we make better metal, at lower energy consumption rates,
01:32: and without any greenhouse gas emissions.
01:36: In big industry, capital intensive, risk averse,
01:40: disruption in those industries does not come from within the industry,
01:44: it comes from outside the industry.