Russia’s National Research University, the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI) has unveiled a groundbreaking method for iron recovery that could reshape steel production worldwide.

MPEI scientists have developed a proprietary process that extracts iron directly from ore using a hydrocarbon and natural gas mixture, cutting out the traditional stage of pig iron production entirely. The method relies on a specially designed reactor where iron reduction occurs in a continuous, liquid-phase cycle. Remarkably, the entire operation takes no more than 12 minutes.