Tadeu Carneiro, CEO of Boston Metal, believes the company's Molten Oxide Electrolysis (MOE) technology is crucial for making steel production sustainable.
Traditional steelmaking relies on mixing iron ore with coking coal and heating them in blast furnaces, a process that releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Boston Metal's MOE technology, by contrast, uses electricity to melt iron ore and separate pure liquid iron from impurities. The only byproduct of this process is oxygen, a stark contrast to the nearly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions attributed to steelmaking.
"A process is needed that will eliminate 10% of the CO2 in the world, and this is the only process that can scale to do that," Carneiro stated, emphasizing the necessity of the technology rather than its novelty.
While other methods for decarbonizing steel exist, such as hydrogen direct reduced iron, Boston Metal argues MOE's advantage lies in its flexibility. Hydrogen-based methods require high-quality, low-impurity inputs, whereas MOE can process all grades of iron ore. However, Carneiro notes a critical condition for MOE: the electricity used must be clean to be effective.
Carneiro expressed optimism about the future of renewable energy, pointing to regions like Canada, Scandinavia, and Brazil where clean electricity is already available at affordable prices. Boston Metal plans to open its first industrial facility in Brazil later this year.
Initially, the company's planned facilities in Brazil, Pennsylvania, and Texas, expected to be operational by 2029, will not produce steel. Instead, they will utilize MOE to recover valuable metals such as niobium, tantalum, and nickel from mining and metallurgical waste. These metals are in high demand for industries including electrification, artificial intelligence, and defense. Boston Metal anticipates that its technology can meet this demand more efficiently and sustainably than developing new mines.
Investor confidence in Boston Metal is evident, with the company announcing $75 million in venture capital funding in May 2026, bringing its total raised to over $500 million. This capital will support the metal recovery operations, which are intended to generate the revenue and proof of concept needed to eventually tackle large-scale steel production. Carneiro believes that once the technology is mature and scaled with planned efficiencies, it can compete economically with current steel manufacturing methods.