Producing iron by electrolysis rather than conventional smelting could prevent the emission of a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

So concludes Donald Sadoway, a materials scientist at MIT in the US who has developed a way producing iron by electrolysing a molten iron oxide in the lab. If the process can be scaled up, it could eliminate the need for conventional smelting, which releases almost a tonne of CO2 for every tonne of steel produced.

Full Story: New Scientist.

(via World Changing).