The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price is outperforming on Wednesday amid news the company has taken a major step towards near-net zero steelmaking.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) iron ore giant's low-carbon iron-making process' effectiveness has been proven at a small-scale German pilot plant. The miner is now looking to develop a larger-scale pilot plant to further assess its potential.
Right now, the Rio Tinto share price is 1.22% higher at $106.28. For comparison, the ASX 200 has lifted 0.8% at the time of writing.
Let's take a closer look at the latest news of Rio Tinto's BioIron process.
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Rio Tinto share price lifts on BioIron development
The Rio Tinto share price is in the green this morning amid good news about the company's BioIron process.
The process removes the need for metallurgical coal in steelmaking. Instead, it uses biomass – including agricultural bi-products – as a reductant and microwave energy to convert Pilbara iron ore to metallic iron.
The company says the process could support near-zero emissions steelmaking, or negative emissions if linked with carbon capture and storage.
Steelmaking currently accounts for 8% of the world's carbon emissions. It's also behind 66% of Rio Tinto's scope three emissions.
Rio Tinto chief commercial officer Alf Barrios commented on the success of the process so far:
Finding low-carbon solutions for iron and steelmaking is critical for the world as we tackle the challenges of climate change. Proving BioIron works at this scale is an exciting development given the implications it could have for global decarbonisation.
The results from this initial testing phase show great promise and demonstrate that the BioIron process is well suited to Pilbara iron ore fines.
The design for a larger-scale pilot plant is now underway. Rio Tinto is working to find a site on which to construct it.
