First Shipment of Fossil-Free Steel Delivered to Volvo

Biofuels and electric cars are good ways to reduce transport emissions. But what about the emissions caused by the car industry? Volvo has a solution.

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The first batch of the revolutionary “fossil-free steel” has been delivered to its first customer, Volvo Cars.

This milestone in the metallurgy and the car industry made big news in Sweden, as the state-owned utility SSAB, Vattenfall, and mining company LKAB announced their plan to redesign a steel industry.

According to CleanTechnica, Ibrahim Bayan, Minister for Business, Industry, and Innovation told the press that the goal is to demonstrate fossil-free technology on an industrial level by 2026.

“While low-carbon technologies exist across many industries, for the steel sector, which emits roughly 8% of global energy emissions and is heavily coal-dependent, commercially viable alternatives are still at an early stage for industrial-scale applications.” And, for what it’s worth, innovations to reduce carbon emissions in the steel business can’t come soon enough, as steel sector emissions could grow to some 20% of the global “carbon budget” by 2050 if left unchecked.”

So why is it important for the car industry to become fossil-free?

Because Volvo revealed that 35% of a car’s total emission is related to the production of steel and iron needed to make the car.

The percentage is a bit lower for electric cars, about 20%, but it’s still a lot of carbon to deal with!

So how do they make the steel industry greener?

They removed the coal-fired blast furnaces that have been the core of the steelmaking process since the Industrial Revolution.

replaced them with hydrogen-fueled furnaces that have only water as an emission.

Now, if they even manage to source green hydrogen, the total emissions in automaking could plummet even more.

We want to believe.

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Nikola Gemeš

Nikola, an electrical engineer, simplifies intricate sustainability subjects for his audience. A staunch environmental conservationist, he embodies his beliefs daily through recycling and cultivating his own food.