Steelmaking is currently responsible for around 8% of global carbon emissions, which means there is a pressing need to develop and commercialise new low-carbon technologies for the industry to meet climate targets.
With the majority of our scope 3 emissions coming from the downstream use of our iron ore and steelmaking coal in the steelmaking process, and we have an ambition to reduce these emissions by 50% by 2040, we are very keen to support these efforts.
Last year, in collaboration with EIT RawMaterials, we launched an innovation challenge to focus on identifying groundbreaking solutions for the steel industry of the future.
The challenge attracted submissions from more than 40 entities based globally, such as startups and university spinouts, who all have a keen interest in accelerating the decarbonisation of the steelmaking sector. The emphasis focused on five crucial areas of the steel value chain: mining, pre-processing, production, recycling, and post-processing.
Given the importance of collaboration across the wider steel ecosystem, we invited industry peers BASF and Mitsui to join the challenge’s panel, helping us to assess the pitches of the finalists – Greenore – and enabling us to select D-CRBN as the winner of the challenge.
We look forward to building our relationship with D-CRBN, but in the interim will provide venture-building consultancy to them as they continue their growth journey. The innovation challenge has highlighted the industry's need to advance technological breakthroughs in the pursuit of a low-carbon future for steel production, and we remain committed to supporting these.