Jonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

The UK is trumpeting #rail200: the 200th anniversary of the railway. As @markhburton points out, that’s a bit premature: https://mstdn.social/@markhburton/113803780435711720

But I want to re-up Kris de Dekker’s lens.

If we were serious about constructing a low carbon economy, we’d acknowledge, soberly, that we have a steel problem:

“The global iron and steel industry consumes more energy and produces more carbon emissions than any other industry.”

Some notes from Kris’s excellent analysis follow…

Mark Burton (@[email protected])

2025 is being celebrated as the 200th anniversary of the birth of the passenger railway. A bit premature, although there was a one-off excursion on the Stockton and Darlington railway, with passengers traveling on coal wagons, the regular passenger service from 1825-1830 used horse-drawn coaches. In 1830, the Liverpool Manchester railway opened, the first connecting 2 cities and the first scheduled passenger service. Stockton and Darlington Railway - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton_and_Darlington_Railway #rail200

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Show threadJonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

…I love rail travel.

Unfortunately, at some point we have to face up to the fact that, although we started out with steel cars powered along steel rails by coal, and then had steel cars powered along steel rails by diesel, we’re now committed to only having steel cars powered along steel rails by electricity.

And steel is made with coal.

“The solution seems obvious: let’s produce all that steel in electric arc furnaces. However, this is impossible. There’s not enough scrap available…”

Show threadNick
@urlyman Was just discussing your thread with my son, who is a structural engineer. He tells me the other issue with recycling steel in electric arc furnaces is that currently the end product isn’t as tough, so has more limited uses.
Sep 27, 2025 at 10:31amWeb
Show threadJonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

@pythoneer yes, Kris in his article:

“Although higher quality steels can be produced in electric arc furnaces, they’re not made from scrap, and have much higher energy use.

Steel available for recycling forms a mix of steel grades. That mix is suitable for making plain carbon steel but not highly alloyed steels, which require scrap with similar qualities. However, that scrap is not available. For example, stainless steel, the most produced special steel grade, has a recycling rate of only 15%”

Show threadJonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025
@pythoneer …“The low recycling rate and the need for the extraction of additional elements such as chrome and nickel make higher grades of steel more energy-intensive to produce. For example, stainless steel production requires almost 80 GJ per ton, four times more than the production of plain carbon steel. The continuous development of higher-grade steels is stimulated by environmental legislation (such as the use of lighter steel in cars)” … ironically making “steel less and less sustainable”