WPI awarded $1.2M federal grant to study low-carbon iron production

Photo | WBJ File Worcester Polytechnic Institute's campus

Write a Comment

Worcester Polytechnic Institute has received $1.24 million in federal funds to study manufacturing technologies potentially leading to lower cost and more environmentally-friendly iron production.

The grant is part of a federal effort to support technologies with the potential to reduce the country’s emissions by 1% annually. The funding was obtained from the Revolutionizing Ore to Steel to Impact Emissions Program, part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

“Massachusetts is yet again leading the charge to our clean energy future,” Sen. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) said in a press release from Gov. Maura Healey’s office on Friday. “These awards will iron out the next generation of green steel manufacturing technologies that will drive down emissions in a hard to abate sector. I look forward to forging a clean steel industry that is built in America.”

WPI will use the funds to investigate manufacturing technologies for low-carbon electrolyzed iron powder, which is used in the production of iron-silicon electrical steel. If successful, this technology could revolutionize iron production by replacing traditional processes resulting in greenhouse gas emissions. This technology has the potential to reduce energy usage and costs.

The university was one of four Massachusetts entities to receive funds as part of the DOE grant. Phoenix Tailings, a Woburn-based company using mining waste in metal production, and Form Energy, a producer of iron-air batteries in Somerville, each received $1 million. Tufts University in Medford received $2.92 million to use ammonia to reduce emissions from the processing of iron ore concentrates, a part of the steel production process.