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Episode 4: Can Ontario’s resource-extraction and industrial economy transition to the clean economy?

Algoma Steel is transitioning its 100 year old coke oven and blast furnaces to electric arc furnace technology. 

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1 min read
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Algoma Steel is beginning the transition from making steel through coke powered blast furnaces to building an electric powered blast furnace.


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Steel is one of the biggest emitters of carbon in the world. Currently, steelmaking is responsible for seven to nine percent of total global emissions. That’s about 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon — or four times more than all the emissions produced in Canada. And because most steel is made by melting down iron using coal, it’s very hard to decarbonize. In Sault Ste. Marie, Algoma Steel is transitioning its 100 year old coke oven and blast furnaces to electric arc furnace technology. It’s a change that will cut its carbon emissions by 70 per cent. Since Ontario’s electricity grid is so clean, Algoma Steel will become some of the cleanest steel on the planet. It’s already being used in EVs and will soon make its way into electrical towers and infrastructure used to build the clean economy.

Marco Chown Oved

Marco Chown Oved is a Toronto-based climate change reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: moved@thestar.ca.

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