Green Steel?

Across the world, a number of companies have attempted to generate 'green steel'. 'Green steel' is produced without coking coal. A combination of renewable electricity and 'green hydrogen' (hydrogen obtained from water, using electrical power) is used to heat the furnaces. It has been reported that the Swedish Hybrit company have delivered the first results of a trial production run to Volvo cars (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/19/green-steel-swedish-company-ships-first-batch-made-without-using-coal). If all goes well, Hybrit will start commercial production of 'green steel' in 2026. Even without using coking coal, there will be some emissions to capture inorder to be completely 'green' (steel contains some carbon and iron ore has impurities). The development appears, however, to be a real improvement on older steel production. The UK government have supported the potential development of a deep coalmine in Cumbria. They claimed it was essential for providing coking coal to the home steel industry (rather than importing it). Their argument just became redundant.