INDABA Partnership convenes industry stakeholders in Beijing, tours decarbonized iron production

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Tsinghua Universities met in July with academic and industry partners in Beijing, where they examined ways to accelerate the decarbonization of the iron and steel industry, focusing on China. They also toured a hydrogen-based ironmaking plant and hydrogen production hub in Hebei Province, China to learn more about how managers there have recently applied cutting-edge decarbonization technology.

The weeklong visit was part of ongoing efforts of the Industrial Decarbonization Analysis, Benchmarking, and Action (INDABA) Partnership, which is funded by a grant from the Partnerships for International Research and Education program of the National Science Foundation. In addition to CMU, the INDABA Partnership includes collaborators from universities in China, Germany, and South Africa. 

The project’s principal investigators—Valerie Karplus, professor of engineering and public policy and associate director of the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, and Chris Pistorius, professor of materials science and engineering and co-director for the Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research—both joined the trip, along with PhD students Annabel Hu (Heinz College) and Elina Hoffmann (Engineering and Public Policy). 

The partnership is currently focused on research and education to deeply decarbonize iron and steelmaking, which Karplus called “an important frontier in addressing climate change globally,” because it is responsible for 8–10% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to Pistorius’ estimate. The industry faces many challenges on its way to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, and at this conference, the partnership worked to address these challenges.

“We’re tackling the challenges of industrial decarbonization on multiple fronts, in multiple geographies, and through multiple disciplinary and methodological lenses,” Karplus said. “The transformative potential of the INDABA partnership is to build a shared understanding of the challenges and solutions across borders and across disciplines.”

While in China, the team also traveled to Zhangjiakou City, the site of the 2022 Winter Olympics, to tour a hydrogen direct reduced iron (DRI) plant run by Xuansteel, a subsidiary of the Hebei Iron and Steel Group (HBIS). The plant uses hydrogen instead of the traditional coke or natural gas to reduce iron ore or elemental iron, emitting 60-70% less carbon than widely used blast furnace plants.

“We got to see the details of the technologies, such as DRI production with 100% hydrogen,” Hu said. “It feels like it is really advancing and progressing at such a pace, and is quite reassuring.” 

After a conference, the tour, and a research workshop, the members of the partnership forged a bond. They found themselves teasing out research questions in unlikely places, such as on the bus and during a hike to the Great Wall. To Karplus, the standout moment of the entire week was an impromptu evening study session as everyone huddled around a whiteboard.

“The fact that people with very different backgrounds and perspectives just wanted to spend their free time together in the same space—that connectedness will carry forward and influence the projects, the impact, and the outcomes as much as the very frequent technical insights and depth of the conversations,” she said.

The INDABA members were able to connect with their colleagues and peers in-person instead of via formal emails or Zoom meetings, which was powerful for facilitating collaboration. PhD student Elina Hoffmann (EPP) said, “To toast to our accomplishments in our research, in understanding the decarbonization challenge across disciplines and across borders, and to our new friendships, at the top of the Great Wall—that was pretty incredible.”