Helix Carbon says it can make iron cheaper by recycling blast furnace pollution

The iron and steel industries are among the biggest polluters in the world. Plenty of startups have tried to cut the industry’s emissions, mostly by developing new ways to make the metals. Helix Carbon thinks those startups have been going about it all wrong. “Any attempt to decarbonize the steel industry without dealing with the blast furnace is not going to work,” David Brown, Helix Carbon’s co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.

钢铁和冶金行业是全球最大的污染源之一。许多初创公司试图通过开发制造金属的新方法来减少该行业的排放，但 Helix Carbon 认为这些初创公司的方向完全错了。Helix Carbon 的联合创始人兼首席执行官大卫·布朗（David Brown）在接受 TechCrunch 采访时表示：“任何不处理高炉而试图实现钢铁行业脱碳的尝试都是行不通的。”

A blast furnace is the giant furnace that turns iron ore into the iron used to make steel. Rather than replace blast furnaces, Helix wants to clean them up. Its approach promises to slash the steel industry’s carbon emissions while boosting profit margins for iron producers, a rare win-win for a dirty industrial process.

高炉是将铁矿石转化为炼钢所需铁水的巨型熔炉。Helix 不打算取代高炉，而是希望对其进行清洁改造。该公司的方案有望在大幅削减钢铁行业碳排放的同时，提高铁生产商的利润率，这对于一个高污染的工业流程来说是难得的双赢。

Blast furnaces have made iron for centuries, using coke, a processed form of coal, to help turn raw iron ore (iron bound up with oxygen) into metallic iron. The burning coke supplies heat for the reaction but doesn’t take part in it directly. Instead, carbon monoxide produced from the combustion does the work of reducing the iron, meaning stripping away its oxygen atoms.

几个世纪以来，高炉一直使用焦炭（一种加工过的煤炭）来帮助将原始铁矿石（与氧结合的铁）转化为金属铁。燃烧的焦炭为反应提供热量，但不直接参与反应。相反，燃烧产生的一氧化碳负责还原铁，即剥离其氧原子。

The process releases tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide, or CO2, which is normally dumped straight into the atmosphere. But Helix Carbon has devised a way to turn that waste carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and recycle it back into the blast furnace.

这一过程会释放大量的二氧化碳，通常直接排放到大气中。但 Helix Carbon 设计了一种方法，可以将这些废弃的二氧化碳转化为一氧化碳，并将其循环回高炉中。

Helix Carbon’s process relies on an electrolyzer, a device that uses electricity and a catalyst to break off an oxygen atom from the carbon dioxide. Electrolyzers aren’t new, but Brown said the startup’s design can handle the entire exhaust stream from the blast furnace. Most electrolyzers are too delicate for raw exhaust like that. They work only on purified, concentrated carbon dioxide, so the exhaust typically has to be processed before they can use it.

Helix Carbon 的工艺依赖于电解槽，这是一种利用电力和催化剂从二氧化碳中分离出氧原子的设备。电解槽技术并不新鲜，但布朗表示，该初创公司的设计能够处理来自高炉的全部废气流。大多数电解槽对于这种原始废气来说过于脆弱，它们只能处理纯净、高浓度的二氧化碳，因此废气通常必须经过预处理才能使用。

By injecting carbon monoxide into a blast furnace, iron producers can use less coke. How much, exactly, is still debated, Brown said. Some scientific papers suggest as much as 90% of the coke can be eliminated, while other studies suggest it’s more like 30% to 40%. Helix Carbon is proposing that iron producers start by replacing 33% of their coke. The company says using its technology to do so would save them $14 per ton of iron.

通过向高炉注入一氧化碳，铁生产商可以减少焦炭的使用量。布朗表示，具体能减少多少仍有争议。一些科学论文认为可以减少高达 90% 的焦炭，而其他研究则认为在 30% 到 40% 之间。Helix Carbon 建议铁生产商先从替代 33% 的焦炭开始。该公司称，使用其技术可以为每吨铁节省 14 美元的成本。

“That may not seem like a lot, but margins in the iron industry are famously thin,” Brown said. The iron and steel industries are a combined $2 trillion market, according to Grand View Research, which makes the sector an appealing target for a young startup to chase. But it also moves slowly, in part because its equipment lasts so long. “There are blast furnaces that have lived for over 100 years,” Brown said.

“这看起来可能不多，但钢铁行业的利润率向来极低，”布朗说。根据 Grand View Research 的数据，钢铁行业是一个总值 2 万亿美元的市场，这使其成为初创公司追逐的诱人目标。但该行业发展缓慢，部分原因是其设备使用寿命极长。布朗说：“有些高炉已经运行了 100 多年。”

To bring in revenue earlier, Helix Carbon plans to court the specialty chemicals industry first. “We don’t need to capture the CO2 first,” Brown said. “We just utilize it, and that opens up the door of making chemicals on-site right out of waste streams.”

为了尽早获得收入，Helix Carbon 计划首先争取特种化学品行业。“我们不需要先捕获二氧化碳，”布朗说，“我们只是利用它，这为直接从废气流中现场制造化学品打开了大门。”

Helix Carbon presented live onstage on Tuesday in the Startup Battlefield pitch competition at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, taking place this week from October 13-15. Join us this week to watch as the rest of Startup Battlefield unfolds.

Helix Carbon 于周二在旧金山举行的 TechCrunch Disrupt 大会的“创业战场”（Startup Battlefield）路演比赛中登台亮相，该活动于本周 10 月 13 日至 15 日举行。欢迎本周加入我们，观看“创业战场”后续的精彩内容。