The global steel industry is facing significant changes to improve its sustainability by cutting the use of fossil carbon-based processes, an unavoidable step to arrive at a lower carbon footprint of this sector. (1,2) Currently, steel production contributes a whopping 3.73 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year (3) due to the high global demand of nearly 2 billion tonnes per year since 2021. (4) Additionally, the steel market is annually increasing by about 3–4% (4) translating to a commensurate increase of CO₂ emissions, if sustainable changes are not implemented. Conventional steel production pathways utilize fossil carbon in the form of coal, coke, and/or methane-based gas mixtures, which is mixed with the iron oxides and heated to a high temperature in either a blast furnace or a shaft furnace. The carbon reacts with the oxide to form CO (Fe2O₃ + 3C → 2Fe + 3CO) and CO₂ (Fe2O₃ + 3CO → 2Fe + 3CO₂), resulting in the reduction of iron oxide to an iron-rich product. A large portion of the CO₂ emissions (about 79% (3,5)) from the steel industry originate from the initial conversion of iron ores (mainly hematite, Fe2O₃) to iron via the blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace route.