Steelmaking is possibly the most important single technical innovation of the last thousand years. Almost all modern technology can trace its roots back to the unique properties of iron with carefully controlled amounts of carbon. Steel allowed everyone from James Watt to the village blacksmith alter the hardness of the material at will, creating the ability to cut and shape steel into everything from bridges to submarines. But it generates a lot of CO 2 . A modest industrial truck from Volvo Group is the prototype for what may be entirely new, carbon free way of making this essential material.

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