Mesabi Metallics will announce today construction of the biggest steelmaking plant in North America, shunning the use of metallurgical coal in favour of “direct reduction” technology that uses “reformed” natural gas instead of coke to separate iron from oxygen.
Mesabi’s Iowa plan will cost $15 billion and produce 7.5 million tons of steel annually, according to today’s Wall Street Journal.
The new greener steel will compete directly with global production based on the now clearly obsolete blast furnace technology fuelled by metallurgical coal. The plant will be “hydrogen-ready” for a future when sufficient green hydrogen is available. At that point, the direct reduction process will emit only pure water.