*[Enwl-eng] SFB Weekly: The promise of carbon-neutral steel

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SFB Weekly: The promise of carbon-neutral steelView this email in your 
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                              A solutions-oriented weekly digest from 
Struggles From Below
                              24/09/21

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                              IMPORTANT: LAST CALL FOR PATRONS!

                              Dear reader,

                              We've come to an inflection point here at SFB 
headquarters: plough on in the face of economic uncertainty or call it quits 
and move on to pastures new. In advance of such a tricky choice, we've 
decided to make one last call for patronage in a final bid for the 
publication to stand on its own feet financially. So if you get any value 
out of the service we provide, we hope you will consider becoming one of our 
sustaining patrons – whether its enough for a monthly takeaway, a sandwich 
or even just a coffee, any little you can afford to spare would be so 
gratefully appreciated.

                              In exchange, we pledge that if we cross the 
£500/month-mark, we'll publish a new longread or photo essay every week 
along with the newsletter. And if we hit £1000/month, we'll launch a new 
solutions-focused podcast.

                              Of course, we'll keep you informed of our 
decision in the coming weeks. But whatever happens, we wish you a heartfelt 
thanks for your all your time and support so far!

                              Ollie
                              Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Struggles From 
Below

                              Become an SFB Patron



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                              In our top read this week, The New Yorker's 
Matthew Hutson examines a new manufacturing technique that could drastically 
reduce the footprint of one of our dirtiest materials.

                              Steel production accounts for around 7% of 
humanity’s greenhouse-gas emissions. There are two reasons for this 
startling fact. First, steel is made using metallurgic methods that our Iron 
Age forebears would find familiar; second, it is part of seemingly 
everything, including buildings, bridges, fridges, planes, trains, and 
automobiles. According to some estimates, global demand for steel will 
nearly double by 2050. Green steel, therefore, is urgently needed if we’re 
to confront climate change.

                              Sometime around 2000 BCE, it was discovered, 
possibly by accident, that iron-heavy rock, or ore, became malleable when it 
was heated over charcoal fires. Today, we can explain why this happens: at 
high enough temperatures, iron atoms loosen their grip on oxygen atoms. The 
oxygen binds to the carbon in the charcoal, forming CO2, which flies off 
into the air. What’s left behind is purified, or “reduced”, iron. The 
process of reduction allowed the Iron Age to begin.

                              It’s hard to say exactly when steel was first 
made. From time to time, it would be created when carbon diffused from the 
charcoal into the iron, strengthening it. But steel production was hard to 
control until a few hundred years ago, when the blast furnace was invented. 
Using bellows, steelworkers increased the temperatures of their coal fires 
to nearly 3,000 degrees – hot enough to melt iron in large quantities.

                              Today, blast furnaces are still the main 
method used to reduce steel. Current models are about a hundred feet tall, 
and can produce ten thousand tons of iron in a day. Instead of charcoal, 
they use coke, a processed form of coal. Coke and ore go in the top of the 
furnace, and molten iron comes out the bottom, infused with carbon; this 
iron can be easily processed into steel. The steel industry produces around 
two billion tons of it each year, in a $2.5-trillion market, while emitting 
more than three billion tons of CO2 annually, most of it from blast 
furnaces.

                              Fortunately, we’ve since learned that there’s 
more than one way to purify iron. Instead of using carbon to remove the 
oxygen from ore, creating CO2, we can use hydrogen, creating H2O – that is, 
water. Many companies are working on this approach; this summer, a Swedish 
venture used it to make steel at a pilot plant. If the technique were widely 
employed, it could cut the steel industry’s emissions by 9%, and our global 
emissions by nearly 6%. That’s a big step toward saving the world.


                              Read the article



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                              What we're reading:

                              How fish can still be part of a more 
sustainable food future
                              New research indicates that a fish-based diet 
could be good for the environment and people’s health. THE CONVERSATION


                              How India's air pollution is being turned into 
floor tiles
                              Smog is a leading cause of ill health around 
the world, but one Indian inventor is hoping to make it easier to breathe by 
scrubbing soot from the air and recycling it. BBC FUTURE


                              ‘Ecofeminism is about respect’: the activist 
working to revolutionise west African farming
                              Mariama Sonko is an unstoppable force who 
continued her work even when she was ostracised by her community in Senegal. 
THE GUARDIAN


                              LA’s new reflective streets bounce heat back 
into space
                              The air in these neighbourhoods is getting 
cooler – with huge implications for sweltering cities worldwide. REASONS TO 
BE CHEERFUL


                              Social entrepreneurs fight to make gig work 
fairer, greener
                              Using ethical tech, Fairtrade products and 
equitable contracts, can social enterprises create a "good" gig economy? 
THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION


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                              One to ponder:

                              The food wars
                              Vitamins or whole foods; high-fat or low-fat; 
sugar or sweetener. Will we ever get a clear idea about what we should eat? 
AEON

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                              Quote of the week:

                              "We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of 
doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." – Henry 
Wadsworth Longfellow

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                              Song of the week:

                              Knucks - Los Pollos Hermanos





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                              That's it for today, folks. If you're enjoying 
this newsletter, please do forward it on to any friends who might be into 
it.

                              All the best,

                              Ollie

                              Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Struggles From 
Below























                              Copyright © 2019 Struggles From Below, All 
rights reserved.
                              Our mailing address is:
                              Struggles From Below, 48b Waller Road, London, 
SE14 5LA
















            Struggles From Below · 48b · Waller Road · London, SE14 5LA · 
United Kingdom




      From: Struggles From Below
      Sent: Friday, September 24, 2021 10:05 AM
      Subject: SFB Weekly: The promise of carbon-neutral steel



 
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