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  • Review Article
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Routes to reducing emissions from steel production

Nature Reviews Clean Technology volume 1, pages 890–902 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The steel industry is responsible for between 7% and 9% of global CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions. A total 70.4% of global steelmaking uses the blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) method, which emits 2.32 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of steel produced (tCO2e t−1). The majority of the remaining approximately 29% of global steel production uses the electric arc furnace (EAF) method, which typically reduces CO2e emissions to 1.43–0.70 tCO2e t–1. In this Review, we summarize trends for decarbonizing the steel sector. Replacing BF-BOF production with the EAF method lowers CO2e emissions per tonne of iron, but is dependent on scrap quality and supply chains, and access to low-emission electricity. BF-BOF processes can replace fossil fuels with biomass, plastic waste and hydrogen, and the process produces high-purity CO2 gas that could be captured and reacted with CaO by-products also produced by the blast furnace to create commercially useful products. Finally, alternative low-emission ironmaking technologies such as smelting reduction processes, the molten oxide electrolysis process or hydrogen direct reduced iron are being trialled at pilot or commercial-scale facilities. The economic feasibility and carbon-emission reduction potential of each approach is sensitive to regional differences and demands, precluding a one-size-fits-all solution.

Key points

  • Blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steelmaking intrinsically emits CO2 as part of the chemical process to produce steel, meaning BF-BOF plants are a large, hard-to-abate source of anthropogenic CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions.

  • Replacing BF-BOF plants with electric arc furnace (EAF) production, which emits around half the CO2 per tonne of steel produced, is particularly suitable in territories with available scrap steel supplies.

  • EAFs alone cannot economically meet the global demand for steel, resulting in the construction of new BF-BOF plants. Technologies are needed to reduce the emissions of BF-BOF plants directly, such as using alternative fuel sources, higher scrap content as feedstock and/or using carbon capture.

  • New ironmaking technologies, such as hydrogen direct reduced iron and iron oxide electrolysis, are expected to be part of the clean technology solution for the global steel sector.

  • The transition to clean technologies for the steel sector will depend on technical, logistic and economic challenges that vary between regions, including scrap availability, iron ore quality and access to low-carbon electricity and/or hydrogen gas.

  • Regional, national and international policies and frameworks to support near net-zero steel manufacturing have shown initial promising results. Increasing demand for low-carbon steel from the private sector is further encouraging increases in supply.

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Fig. 1: Overview of the two major steelmaking technologies.
Fig. 2: Global end-of-life scrap availability.
Fig. 3: The hierarchical structure of a steel scrap market.
Fig. 4: Conventional fossil fuel carbon and non-fossil fuel carbon alternatives.
Fig. 5: Alternative ironmaking technologies compared with conventional blast furnaces.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the EPSRC for funding via the SUSTAIN Hub (EP/S018107/1), CircularMetal project (EP/V011804/1) and Manufacturing Fellowship (EP/N011368/1), and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, which has supported some of the work presented here. R. Hall is acknowledged for providing information on carbon taxes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. WMG, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Claire Davis & Zushu Li

  2. School of Chemical, Materials & Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Peter Styring

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    Richard Curry

  4. Chemistry Engineering Materials Environment Group, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    Peter J. Holliman

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Contributions

The authors all contributed to the article, with C.D. writing the abstract, introduction and summary, and reviewing/editing the manuscript before submission and during corrections; Z.L. writing ‘Scrap steel’ and ‘Alternative ironmaking’; P.J.H. writing ‘Alternative low-emission’; P.S. writing ‘Carbon capture’; and R.C. contributing to ‘Scrap steel’.

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Correspondence to Claire Davis.

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Glossary

Coke

In the blast furnace, a hard, porous carbon-rich material produced by extended pyrolysis of coal that drives off volatile matter to typically <1–2% of the final mass.

Coolant

A solid, liquid or gas added to a system to remove heat and control the overall temperature.

Direct reduced iron

(DRI). Porous metallic iron that has been pre-reduced from iron ore without melting.

Electric arc

A high-power electric arc generated between carbon electrodes that very rapidly generates very high temperatures (>10,000 °C).

Higher heating value

(HHV). The total heat released from complete combustion including condensing water vapour.

Lime

Calcium oxide produced by thermal decomposition of limestone (calcium carbonate).

Minimills

Small-scale steel plants that recycle scrap iron in electric arc furnaces (EAFs).

Tramp element

An undesired impurity in a metal that is hard to remove and damages material properties.

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Davis, C., Li, Z., Styring, P. et al. Routes to reducing emissions from steel production. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. 1, 890–902 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00118-1

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