TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

‘World’s first fossil-free steel’ delivered to Volvo

25 pointsby hiddencachealmost 4 years ago

1 comment

CarelessExpertover 3 years ago
Note, this is just a trial delivery, which though a really impressive step, doesn&#x27;t represent full industrial-scale production yet. The article notes that &quot;By 2030, the aim is for the business to have the capacity to produce 5 million tons of steel per year.&quot;<p>Further, for context, &quot;Global crude steel production reached 1,869.9 million tonnes (Mt) for the year 2019&quot; (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.worldsteel.org&#x2F;media-centre&#x2F;press-releases&#x2F;2020&#x2F;Global-crude-steel-output-increases-by-3.4--in-2019.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.worldsteel.org&#x2F;media-centre&#x2F;press-releases&#x2F;2020&#x2F;...</a>). So even at full scale, 5 million tons a year is a very small drop in a very very large, dirty bucket.<p>The article is also unclear as to whether the hydrogen used here was in fact green hydrogen. My bet is probably not, given the vast majority of hydrogen out there is blue hydrogen or worse. We&#x27;d need the green hydrogen industry to expand <i>significantly</i> for hydrogen-based processes like these to truly be carbon neutral.<p>Finally, there&#x27;s no mention of cost comparison. So it&#x27;s unclear if this process is price competitive with coal-based processes, or would be any time soon.<p>In short: Very cool, but a <i>long</i> way from where we need to be if we wanna hit net zero in my lifetime (which, you know, we won&#x27;t, but...)