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Iron extracted from hazardous waste of aluminium production

Millions of tonnes of ‘red mud’, a hazardous waste of aluminium production, are generated annually. A potentially sustainable process for treating this mud shows that it could become a source of iron for making steel.
  1. Chenna Rao Borra

    1. Chenna Rao Borra is in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India.

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Steel and aluminium are the world’s most-produced metals1, but both have high environmental costs. The production of steel requires a fossil fuel (coal) and generates approximately 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of steel2. Aluminium production generates 2–4 tonnes of environmentally problematic waste per tonne of aluminium produced3. Writing in Nature, Jovičević-Klug et al.4 report a process that has the potential not only to address this waste, but also to achieve carbon-neutral steel production — thereby increasing the sustainability of two major metal industries.

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Nature 625, 665-667 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00071-2

References

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  3. Evans, K., Nordheim, E. & Tsesmelis, K. in Light Metals 2012 (ed. Suarez, C. E.) 63–66 (Springer, 2012).

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  4. Jovičević-Klug, M., Souza Filho, I. R., Springer, H., Adam, C. & Raabe, D. Nature 625, 703–709 (2024).

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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