How Britain could forge a steelmaking revolution despite British Steel’s woes

Keir Starmer meets British Steel workers near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

The plight of British Steel is an opportunity for a transformative change in the way steel is made (Editorial, 10 April). Blast furnaces depend on coal, and steelmaking emits well over a tonne of CO₂ for every tonne of steel, producing roughly a tenth of global CO₂ emissions. Using electric arc furnaces gets around this by recycling scrap metal, but doesn’t address the primary problem.

There are promising alternatives. These include making steel with hydrogen, and more advanced options such as the all-electric projects being supported by the US’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Arpa-E). Scunthorpe is well placed for this, close to North Sea windfarms and able to exploit cheap surplus late-night electricity.