Antoine Allanore is forging a new future for iron and steel

The steel mill endures in the popular imagination as a place where coal-fired blast furnaces roar and chimneys belch smoke.

In 1950s Pittsburgh, it’s said that white-collar businessmen would change their shirts several times a day because of all the soot in the Steel City’s air.

Yet that gritty mid-20th-century industrial vision is an outdated one, says MIT metallurgist Antoine Allanore, whose research into the use of electricity to power the production of iron and steel is reimagining the industry as clean, green, and future-ready.

“I visit steel plants all the time, and I don’t change my shirt,” says Allanore, the Heather N. Lechtman Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and a principal investigator in the MIT Materials Research Laboratory. “These emissions problems have been tackled. Some of them still require significant investment, but there is no need for iron and steel production to be dirty, even with the old technology. That’s a narrative from 1960.”

Piloting processes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Iron and steel are among the world’s most consumed materials after stone and cement, he says, and countries increasingly are seeking to redefine their relationship with the environment while upgrading their manufacturing capabilities.

While noting challenges in commercializing new technologies in this industry, Allanore sees opportunities for the United States to lead in the decarbonization of steel production through its diverse energy resources and adaptable manufacturing ecosystem. He hopes to continue advancing the fundamental science and pragmatic engineering needed to enable cleaner and more widely distributed steel production that can meet evolving market demands.

Allanore is contributing as a team member on one of five multiyear flagship projects within the MIT Climate Grand Challenges, an initiative to tackle complex climate problems and deliver breakthrough solutions to the world as quickly as possible.

The project he is working on is dedicated to the electrification and decarbonization of industry. The aim is to create an innovation hub on campus that brings together MIT researchers investigating decarbonization of steel, cement, ammonia, and ethylene, combining research equipment and directly collaborating on new methods to produce these four key materials.

The growth of low-cost, renewable electricity is seen as presenting a promising pathway to transform industrial processes and achieve decarbonization across the economy.

Decarbonizing Energy and Industry is one of the six missions of the MIT Climate Project, an ambitious new model of accelerated, university-led innovation announced in fall 2024 by MIT President Sally Kornbluth in response to the global threat posed by climate change. “Most of my research involves using electricity to transform materials into products,” says Allanore, who notes his interest in this form of energy was sparked by his grandfather’s work on a hydroelectric dam in his native France. Allanore’s undergraduate studies in chemical engineering shaped his focus on process technology and “making things fast, efficiently, reliably, and safely,” he says.

Allanore explores the molecular mechanisms underlying the use of electricity in the production of iron and steel. In doing so, he hopes to pilot industrial processes that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and be readily scalable. “Iron and steel are among the oldest materials used by humanity,” he says. “If you talk to a welder, to someone who repairs cars, or to somebody who constructs bridges, all have a practical knowledge of iron and steel. I’m interested in how we can draw on centuries of knowledge in this area to bring new opportunities to society.”

Allanore’s research into the properties of molten metal involves examining materials literally too hot to handle.

“We are studying molten steel, liquid steel. The temperature is more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a liquid that no human can touch, no human can see. You can’t watch it. It’s too hot. It would burn your eyes if you’re watching it too closely. Nobody can contain it.”

“The methods we’re developing involve seeing where others cannot see. There are many people who work in a steel mill who want to better understand how this beast works. In that sense, I feel empowered when I can share my research with people who are today doing steel in the old ways.”

He continues, “We don’t really understand the interaction between electrons and high-temperature materials. Today, we have electric furnaces that remelt steel, millions of tons per year. But what is happening in this phenomenon?”

His research sheds light on how heat is transported when electrons are shot into metal, as well as on the flow mechanics of molten steel as it transforms into a solid. “We’re pursuing new technologies, but at the same time we’re informing fundamental knowledge,” he remarks.

MIT, by combining strengths in scientific research with practical know-how in engineering, has “all the talent and energy to come up with new ways of making things,” Allanore says. “When people in the trade ask, ‘How fast can you make it?’ or ‘How much energy do you need?’, we take a pragmatic view of how things can be done at a large scale.

“It’s very practical,” Allanore says. “This is not a field you can solve with a computer. You don’t make steel on computers.”

Materials Research Laboratory: Driving interdisciplinary materials research at MIT

Materials lie at the core of nearly every major technology—from clean energy systems and next-generation electronics to biomedical devices, sustainable infrastructure, and quantum technologies.

At MIT, materials research thrives across disciplines and departments. Recent breakthroughs include strategies for securing sustainable supplies of nickel, critical to clean-energy technologies; the creation of ultrathin materials, made from a single layer of atoms, that shed light on how materials behave at the most fundamental level; and the development of adhesive coatings that reduce scarring around medical implants and could prolong the lifespan of pacemakers and other medical devices.

At the center of these efforts is the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), of which Antoine Allanore is a member. The lab brings together academia, government, and industry to accelerate innovation in sustainability, energy, and advanced materials, and move ideas seamlessly from fundamental discovery to real-world application.

More than 30 MIT researchers are affiliated with the lab, which “serves as a home for the entire materials research community at MIT,” according to the lab’s director, C. Cem Tasan, the POSCO Associate Professor of Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

MRL researchers are addressing critical global challenges in energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and the development of next-generation material systems. The lab has supported a range of research programs in partnership with industry leaders including Apple, Ford, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, and Texas Instruments.

Other researchers include:

• Anu Agarwal, principal research scientist at MIT’s Microphotonics Center and MRL, who is spearheading efforts to build a sustainable microchip manufacturing ecosystem
• Joseph Checkelsky, professor of physics, who is leading pioneering research on scalable, high-temperature quantum materials, in the realm of quantum transport
• Nuh Gedik, the Donner Professor of Physics, who explores ultrafast electronic and structural dynamics and light-matter interactions
• Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, who is making significant progress with two-dimensional materials and their heterostructures
• Randolph Kirchain PhD ’99, director of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, who is modeling metals markets under decarbonization and developing greener construction materials
• Elsa Olivetti PhD ’07, the Jerry McAfee Professor of Engineering, who serves as the lead principal investigator for REMADE (the Institute for Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions) in MRL, researching fiber recovery and post-consumer resin processing to enhance material circularity and reduce energy use by 50% by 2027
• Gregory Rutledge PhD ’90, the Lammot duPont Professor of Chemical Engineering, who in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic spearheaded a federally sponsored initiative to develop biodegradable, nanofiber-based personal protective equipment

This story was originally published in Spectrum.