Perth, Australia — April 10, 2024 — Element Zero, The Green Metal Company, is delighted to have been named the first-ever Western Australian winner of a prestigious BNEF Pioneers award for innovative and disruptive companies helping drive the transition to a net-zero economy.
Based in Perth, Australia, Element Zero has developed a novel approach to cost-effectively and efficiently produce iron, silicon, and other future-facing metals with zero carbon emissions.
Element Zero’s technology targets removal of nearly 30% of global industrial emissions.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), which runs the annual competition, named Element Zero the winner of its “wildcard” category. This classification recognises companies developing technologies that BNEF believes could play an important role in decarbonisation but fall outside its three main award categories linked to energy, buildings and fuels.
Claire Curry, selection committee co-chair and global head of Technology, Industry & Innovation research at BloombergNEF, stated: “BNEF set up the Pioneers award 14 years ago to recognise, and by doing so to accelerate, the progress of climate-tech innovators. The work of these decarbonisation innovators is more important than ever in this critical decade: the search for new climate solutions has never been as urgent. Our winners this year span, among other things, technology breakthroughs in clean fuels, methods of advancing building decarbonisation, and new routes to accelerate the deployment of renewables.”
BNEF also acknolwedged that “Element Zero’s process does not contain any membranes, and the high heat capacity of the solvent used means the process can maintain its temperature without power for hours.”
Element Zero’s alkaline electrochemical process allows the company to process the full spectrum of iron ores; this includes the core 95% of Australian and Brazilian global trade in iron ore, which cannot currently be processed using direct reduction or other lower carbon processing technology.
The technology has been tested successfully on iron ore, nickel, and converting silica to silicon metal. The lower temperature also allows Element Zero to run this process on intermittent renewables such as wind, solar, and hydropower. Element Zero less energy than the current dominant coal and gas-based processes and produces a superior purity product.
Element Zero is already operating a trial plant that is producing zero-carbon iron at its Malaga Perth facility and has a goal of processing five million tonnes per year of iron ore feed, producing around 2.7 million tonnes of high purity iron.
Element Zero Founder and CEO Michael Masterman said: “This global award is welcome recognition of Element Zero’s unique technology and the valuable role that it can play in reducing global carbon emissions. With iron and steel production alone accounting for more than 8% of global carbon emissions, and with demand for energy-intensive materials continuing to grow, there is a clear and urgent need for action. The Element Zero platform allows for cost-effective and scalable production of carbon-free metals crucial to the iron and steel and critical metals industries.”
Media Contact:
Michael Masterman
Email: media@elementzero.green
About Element Zero
Element Zero is a green materials platform company working towards zero-carbon iron and steel and other future-facing metal production. Headquartered in Australia, the company has developed a cost-effective and efficient pathway to convert iron ore and other minerals into their pure metal form with zero carbon emissions. The modular approach of the Element Zero process aims to address 30% of global industrial carbon dioxide emissions from iron and steelmaking. Element Zero is developing a portfolio of projects to accelerate market adoption, the first of which will be located in northwest Australia, the world’s largest source and holder of iron ore reserves. Element Zero – The Green Metal Company.
About the BNEF Pioneers competition
BloombergNEF, part of the Bloomberg Finance group, is a strategic research provider covering global commodity markets and the disruptive technologies driving the transition to a low-carbon economy. Each year, BNEF runs the BNEF Pioneers competition to identify three key challenges on the path to a net-zero economy and highlight innovative companies developing technologies to overcome them. The categories are chosen based on the technology gaps that emerge from BNEF’s long-term outlook for energy, transport and materials. BNEF also runs a “wildcard” category for companies developing technologies that it believes could play an important role in decarbonisation but are outside the scope of the three focus challenges: relieving bottlenecks in the deployment of clean power; decarbonising the construction and operation of buildings; and creating the next generation of net-zero fuels. These wildcard applicants can address any issue that helps the world tackle climate change. BNEF Pioneers 2024 | BloombergNEF | Bloomberg Finance LP.