Leveraging blast furnace operations to reduce emissions

The findings of a recently published study by LEO member Dr. Elina Hoffmann, Dr. Valerie Karplus, and INDABA partner Dr. Chris Pistorius are discussed in this CMU news story by Monica Cooney, Communications Manager, Materials Science and Engineering, published January 20, 2026.

The study "analyzes variations in operations across the global blast furnace fleet and its impact on CO₂ emissions, finding that emissions could have been reduced by as much as

9.6% globally and 15.5% nationally from 2011 to 2021 if each furnace had operated at either its own historical minimum emissions intensity or the observed national minimum."

The work was part of the activities of the Industrial Decarbonization Analysis, Benchmarking and Action Partnership, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Read the full story here.