Bill Gates-backed Startup Hits $50 Million Funding Goal for CO2-free Steel Processing

We all know that certain industrial manufacturing processes are hard on the environment, but just how hard? According to reports, the steel industry accounts for a whopping 8% of harmful carbon emissions, making this application a ripe target for climate-friendly changes.

One company hopes to revolutionize the metal industry and it has some big-name backers, including Bill Gates.

Boston Metal offers a technology called Molten Oxide Electrolysis, originally developed at MIT, that’s designed to replace several heavy metal processing steps with one that generates no hazardous waste. It is meant to reduce complexity as metal can be produced directly from a molten state versus extractive metallurgy, which requires much more energy. Ultimately, Boston Metal says that steel can be produced without CO2 entirely, and ferroalloys can be made without aluminum.

Boston Metal is hoping to produce metals, partner with companies, and also license its MOE to existing metals makers, and a recent fundraising effort yielded big returns for the Massachusetts-based company. The startup that gained early backing from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund has just reportedly netted another $50 million to help expand its operations.

According to Tech Crunch, Boston Metal has gone from eight employees to 50 in the past few years, and its latest round of funding is an attempt to support the commercialization of its alloy process and, also, to add production lines for steelmaking.

According to Boston Metal, its ultimate vision is “a world with no pollution from metals production” – a lofty goal that we hope to see play out over the coming years.