Could Rio Tinto’s BioIron steelmaking process change the world?<\/a><\/p>\nRio Tinto says a new way of treating iron ore for steel production could reduce emissions by 95 per cent. So what’s the catch?<\/p>\n
“Both projects are part of our work to reduce emissions and support the future of iron ore in Australia and the communities that depend on it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Calix chief executive Phil Hodgson welcomed the announcement, saying it validated for the company’s technique, nicknamed “Zesty”.<\/p>\n
“Calix is a small technology startup company trying to decarbonise iron and steel. [To have] a partner like Rio, the largest iron ore miner in the world, is very significant for us,” he said.<\/p>\n
Technique not ‘green’ yet<\/p>\n
The Zesty technique uses electric heating and hydrogen reduction to produce its iron, which Mr Hodgson says holds “enormous potential” to decarbonise Western Australia’s dominant industry.<\/p>\n
“Rather than big blast furnaces producing over 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of iron produced, we can produce iron with zero carbon,” he said.<\/p>\n
The project has already received almost $45 million in grant funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4bcb1b1ec45bdcaa52d569c78f94aeb9\")
<\/p>\n
Phil Hodgson says the Zesty technique can produce iron with zero carbon. (Supplied: Calix)<\/p>\n
In basic terms, the method involves heating a large steel tube with dust-like iron ore at its centre.<\/p>\n
Hydrogen is then introduced, causing a chemical reaction that sends iron out one end and water vapour out the other.<\/p>\n
However, much of the iron produced by Calix will not be “green” during testing, drawing electricity from the main power grid.<\/p>\n
“Not every tonne of steel iron that we produce in Kwinana out of this demonstration plant would necessarily be zero emissions, per se,” Mr Hodgson said.<\/p>\n
“The idea is to demonstrate the technology at this scale so that the full-scale commercial units can be [zero emissions].”<\/p>\n
Eyeing the Pilbara<\/p>\n
Curtin University associate professor in minerals, energy, and chemical engineering Tejas Bhatelia said Rio Tinto’s shift in investment reflected the two technologies’ level of readiness.<\/p>\n
“They’re not competing technologies,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They are complementing, and they may be into the mixture of things that Rio or others will do.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0b39267ede81d2d1e51774178a509ea3\")
<\/p>\n
Dr Tejas Bhatelia says the BioIron product likely encountered unexpected difficulties. (Supplied: Curtin University)<\/p>\n
Dr Bhatelia said BioIron may have proven more difficult to scale up than first anticipated.<\/p>\n
Unlike the burning of raw biomass like barley, wheat, or straw, a hydrogen-based fuel source left no carbon to sequester.<\/p>\n
The logistics of sourcing that biomass could also have been an obstacle.<\/p>\n
“If you are out somewhere where you can’t source the biomass then you are spending a lot of energy bringing that biomass to the steel processing plant,” Dr Bhatelia said.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the deal, Rio Tinto will supply up to 10,000 tonnes of iron ore to Calix for the proposed demonstration plant, subject to various conditions.<\/p>\n
It is hoped the facility will be capable of producing 30,000 tonnes of iron per year, its proof-of-concept paving the way for further green steelmaking facilities to be built closer to the company’s Pilbara mines.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/e6927a7096135fed354f57227a5a8947\")
<\/p>\n
It is hoped the Rockingham facility will be capable of producing 30,000 tonnes of iron per year. (ABC News: Michelle Stanley)<\/p>\n
“[The Pilbara has] got excellent sun and excellent wind resources, and it’s a combination of both of those two \u2026 that’s a really interesting opportunity for something like a green iron industry in this country,” Mr Hodgson said.<\/p>\n
But Dr Bhatelia warned that more infrastructure would be needed in the region to support renewables and water supply<\/a>, as well as the upskilling of local workers.<\/p>\nThe project now enters a detailed engineering phase ahead of a final investment decision by Rio Tinto in 2026.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto has scrapped a $215 million research centre touted last year as a key staging ground for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,167110,99,60210,58988,19182,86,119422,37150,167112,167111,45],"class_list":["post-290265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bioiron","tag-business","tag-green-iron","tag-green-steel","tag-net-zero","tag-perth-news","tag-pilbara-mining","tag-rio-tinto","tag-wa-iron-ore","tag-wa-mining","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}