The quest for greener steel is hotting up in Sweden's frozen north. The industry is one of the planet's biggest carbon emitters.
For hundreds of years, raging blast furnaces fed by coking coal have forged steel used in cars, railways, bridges, and skyscrapers. But the puffs of coal-fired smoke are a key source of co2 a heat-trapping gas that's driving climate change.
Total direct emissions from the sector were about 2.6 billion tonnes in 2020, representing around seven percent of global co2 emissions. It's a process still in use today at plants, including Swedish steel giant ssab's in Lulea, northern Sweden.
They exploring using hydrogen rather than carbon-emitting coking coal in the production process. According to the company, SSAB's operations account for about ten percent of Sweden's and seven percent of Finland's co2 emissions.
