Helix Carbon says it can make iron cheaper by recycling blast furnace pollution

The steel industry is a major polluter, but Helix Carbon says it can reduce blast furnace emissions to cut greenhouse gas output and improve profit margins.

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Iron and steel industries are among the biggest polluters in the world. Many startups have tried to reduce the industry's greenhouse gas emissions, mainly by developing new ways to make metals. Helix Carbon thinks those startups have it all wrong.

David Brown, founder and CEO of Helix Carbon, told TechCrunch, “Any attempt to decarbonize the steel industry will not work without hitting the blast furnace. A blast furnace is a giant furnace that transforms iron ore into the iron used to make steel. Instead of replacing blast furnaces, Helix wants to clean them. Its approach promises to reduce the steel industry's carbon emissions while increasing profit margins for iron producers, a rare win-win for a dirty industrial process.

Blast furnaces have made iron for centuries using coke, a processed form of coal, to help convert raw iron ore (iron bound to oxygen) into metallic iron. Burning coke provides heat for the reaction but does not directly participate in it. Instead, the carbon monoxide produced by combustion does the work of reducing the iron, meaning it removes its oxygen atoms.

In this process, large amounts of carbon dioxide or CO 2 are released, which are usually released directly into the atmosphere. But Helix Carbon has invented a way to convert waste carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and recycle it back to the blast furnace.

The Carbon Helix process relies on an electrolyzer, a device that uses electricity and a catalyst to separate oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide. Electrolyzers aren't new, but Brown said the startup's design can control the entire exhaust stream from the blast furnace. Most electrolyzers are too delicate for raw exhaust like that. They only work on pure, concentrated carbon dioxide, so the exhaust usually has to be processed before it can be used.

By injecting carbon monoxide into the blast furnace, iron producers can use less coke. Exactly how much is still up for debate, Brown said. Some scientific papers suggest that 90% of fleas can be removed, while other studies suggest that it is more like 30-40%.

Helix Carbon suggests that iron producers start by replacing 33 percent of their coke. The company says using its technology to do this saves them $14 per ton of iron. "It may not sound like much, but the margins in the iron industry are very thin," Brown said.

According to Grandview Research, the iron and steel industries are a combined $2 trillion market, making the sector an attractive target for a young startup. But it also moves slowly, in part because its equipment is so long. "There are blast furnaces that are over 100 years old," Brown said.

"We don't need to capture the CO2 first," said Kendall Brown of Specialty Chemicals to get revenue sooner. "We just use it, and it opens the door to making chemicals right out of the waste stream."

Helix Carbon is part of the Startup Battlefield competition and was presented live on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on Tuesday. Join us this week for the rest of Battlefield.

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Tim de Chant is a senior weather reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, for which he is editor.

De Chant also teaches at MIT's Graduate Program in Science Writing, and was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA in environmental studies, English and biology from St. Olaf College.

You can contact or confirm with Tim by emailing him at [email protected].

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