CRT: An Australian Technology Platform for the Next Generation of Green Iron

CRT: An Australian Technology Platform for the Next Generation of Green Iron Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) Australia’s Opportunity Australia has some of the world’s largest iron ore resources and some of the world’s best renewable energy resources. The opportunity is not simply to export both. The greater opportunity is to bring them together and convert more Australian iron ore into higher-value, lower-emissions iron products in Australia. Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) is developing Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) as a single integrated energy platform designed to help make that possible. Green Iron Needs More Than Hydrogen Much of the discussion about green iron understandably focuses on hydrogen. Hydrogen is essential, but an industrial ironmaking facility requires more than a hydrogen supply. Continuous iron production requires three fundamental energy services: 24/7 firm electrical power, high-temperature process energy, and a reliable reducing gas such as hydrogen-rich syngas. Renewable electricity can produce hydrogen through electrolysis. However, large industrial facilities must also operate continuously through periods when wind and solar generation fluctuate. CEWT’s approach is therefore to integrate renewable electricity, hydrogen production, carbon recycling, synthetic fuel, firm power generation and thermal-energy recovery within a common technology platform. Carbon as a Circulating Process Material CRT starts from a different way of looking at carbon. Rather than continuously extracting fossil carbon, using it once and releasing the resulting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, CRT seeks to maintain carbon as a managed circulating inventory within the industrial energy system. For iron reduction, hydrogen-rich syngas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be used as the reducing gas. Hydrogen removes oxygen from iron oxide and forms water. Carbon monoxide removes oxygen from iron oxide and forms carbon dioxide. Instead of treating that carbon dioxide simply as a waste stream requiring disposal, CRT is designed to recover it and return the carbon to the energy and reducing-gas cycle. Conceptually: CO → CO₂ → recovery → synthetic methane → reforming → hydrogen-rich syngas → CO. Renewable hydrogen provides the continuing external reducing-energy input, while carbon is progressively recycled through the process. This is the central distinction between carbon capture and carbon recycling. One Platform — Multiple Energy Functions CRT is not being developed solely as a green-iron process. It is being developed as a common industrial energy platform capable of supporting several applications from substantially the same core architecture. 24/7 Firm Power Renewable electricity can be converted into hydrogen and combined with recovered carbon dioxide to produce synthetic fuel. That fuel can provide dispatchable power when renewable generation is unavailable, with the resulting carbon dioxide recovered again for recycling. The objective is to convert variable renewable energy into firm, controllable 24/7 energy. Data Centres The same architecture can be configured behind the meter for data centres. In this application, CRT can potentially provide continuous electrical power while recovering thermal energy for integration with cooling systems. Instead of treating electricity generation and cooling as unrelated infrastructure, they can be designed as an integrated energy system. Green Iron For ironmaking, CRT can potentially provide the three energy services required by a continuously operating DRI facility: firm electricity, process thermal energy and hydrogen-rich reducing gas. Carbon dioxide arising from the reducing gas, residual carbon dioxide within the process gas and recoverable carbon dioxide from carbon-containing process-heating fuels can be directed back into the common carbon-recycling system. The objective is therefore not merely to capture carbon. It is to follow the carbon and keep using it. Retrofitting Existing Iron and Steel Plants One of the potentially important applications of CRT is not only the development of new greenfield green-iron plants, but also the progressive decarbonisation of existing iron and steel facilities. Around the world, substantial industrial infrastructure already exists for iron and steel production, including plants that use natural gas and other carbon-containing fuels. These facilities represent major investments in furnaces, utilities, material handling, power infrastructure, land and skilled workforces. Rather than assuming that all of this infrastructure must ultimately be replaced, CEWT believes an important question should be examined: Can existing iron and steel plants be progressively integrated with renewable electricity, hydrogen production, carbon recovery and recycled synthetic fuels? CRT is being developed with this potential retrofit pathway in mind. Where natural gas is presently used as a fuel or process-energy source, the resulting recoverable CO₂ could potentially become an input to the CRT carbon-recycling system. Instead of the conventional linear pathway — Natural gas → industrial process → CO₂ → atmosphere — CRT seeks to establish a circular pathway: Recycled synthetic fuel → industrial process → CO₂ recovery → renewable H₂ + methanation → regenerated synthetic fuel → industrial process. The objective is therefore to progressively substitute the continuous consumption of new fossil carbon with a managed circulating carbon inventory, while renewable electricity and renewable hydrogen provide the continuing external energy inputs. The exact retrofit configuration would necessarily depend on each plant’s existing process technology, gas composition, furnaces, heat requirements, emissions sources and infrastructure. However, if technically and commercially demonstrated, this approach could provide an important additional pathway for industrial decarbonisation: preserving valuable existing industrial assets while progressively changing the way their energy and carbon are supplied and managed. From Australian Renewable Energy to Australian Green Iron Australia already exports enormous quantities of iron ore. Australia also has extraordinary renewable-energy resources. The next industrial opportunity is to combine those advantages. Rather than considering renewable electricity, hydrogen, firm power, industrial heat, and green iron as separate industries, CRT seeks to integrate them into a common system. Australian renewable energy → Renewable hydrogen → CRT carbon recycling and synthetic energy carriers → 24/7 power + process heat + hydrogen-rich reducing gas → Australian iron ore → Australian green iron. CEWT is developing CRT around a simple principle: Carbon does not necessarily have to be a disposable fuel. It can become a managed material circulating within an integrated energy system. If that principle can be demonstrated technically and commercially at industrial scale, it could provide Australia with another pathway for converting its renewable-energy and mineral advantages into higher-value manufacturing. One Australian technology platform. Multiple industrial applications. One objective: keep the energy productive and keep the carbon circulating. Important notice: CEWT is developing Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) and progressing its engineering, intellectual-property, and technology-partner development. References to potential industrial applications and retrofits describe areas being investigated and should not be interpreted as completed engineering assessments of specific third-party facilities.