Hertha Metals aims to make steel cheaper and cleaner
Hertha Metals is developing a one-step furnace that uses natural gas instead of coal to reduce the cost and emissions of steel production.
Steel is essential to products ranging from reinforcing bar to car frames, but producing it remains energy-intensive and carbon-heavy. Most steelmakers still rely on a process whose basic approach dates to the 1850s: iron ore is heated in blast furnaces and exposed to gases that remove oxygen before the material is refined further.
That conventional route depends on coal and generates roughly 7% of the carbon emissions driving climate change. Replacing it has been difficult because steel producers operate on narrow profit margins, while furnaces are expensive assets designed to remain in service for many years.
Hertha Metals founder Laureen Meroueh is pursuing a more immediate alternative. Her company has developed a furnace intended to turn iron ore into refined liquid steel in one step while using natural gas instead of coal. Meroueh says the process can reduce emissions by at least half and lower costs by 25% compared with conventional production.
Simplifying an established production process
Traditional steelmaking involves multiple stages. Solid iron ore is melted at extremely high temperatures in a blast furnace, where chemical reactions remove oxygen. The resulting material then requires additional refining before it can become usable steel.
Hertha’s system combines ore processing and refining in a single furnace. The company’s approach is designed to deliver two practical benefits:
- Fewer production steps between iron ore and refined liquid steel
- Lower emissions through the replacement of coal with natural gas
Reducing the physical size and energy needs of steel production could itself be meaningful. Iryna Zenyuk, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine, noted that conventional systems are massive, inefficient and require substantial energy input. In her assessment, even gains in energy efficiency would represent important progress.
The technology is not presented as a zero-carbon solution. Instead, it focuses on reducing emissions with fuels and infrastructure that can be used economically today.
A pragmatic path to lower-emission steel
Several green-steel initiatives are centered on hydrogen, which can be used to remove oxygen from iron ore. That approach could eventually sharply reduce or eliminate emissions from the process. For now, however, hydrogen remains too expensive for Hertha’s cost-focused strategy.
Meroueh is therefore willing to continue using a fossil fuel—natural gas—to make nearer-term improvements without raising the price of steel. This reflects a central part of Hertha’s plan: address what can be changed now rather than waiting for a fully carbon-free production system.
The company has also sought to preserve a path toward deeper decarbonization. Meroueh says Hertha’s current plant could eventually move to a fully decarbonized system without major hardware changes if hydrogen becomes more affordable.
That flexibility may matter in an industry where the long operating lives of furnaces can discourage investment. Equipment that offers immediate savings while retaining the option to adopt cleaner fuel later could reduce some of the risk associated with changing production methods.
From engineering research to a Texas pilot plant
Meroueh’s interest in engineering began early. At age 12, she entered a pilot program at Florida Atlantic University that allowed her to take college-level courses instead of following a traditional secondary education. Her studies included calculus and ocean wave energy.
She later earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT and led a green hydrogen startup before founding Hertha Metals in 2022. Meroueh, a first-generation Lebanese-American, grew up in an entrepreneurial family and viewed starting a company as a familiar career path.
Her concern for the natural world also shaped her professional direction. As a young student, she balanced demanding coursework with time spent surfing and outdoors, experiences that strengthened her interest in environmental protection.
Hertha now operates a pilot plant in Conroe, Texas, north of Houston. The facility is capable of producing one metric ton of steel per day. Rajesh Swaminathan, a partner at investor Khosla Ventures, described reaching that level as a significant scale-up, particularly in light of the company’s spending.
As of July 2026, Hertha had raised about $20 million. Swaminathan said competing efforts had produced much less steel after receiving $50 million or $100 million in funding.
Hertha’s production targets
The company is planning a second facility next to its existing pilot plant. Its stated expansion roadmap includes:
- A new plant designed to produce 10,000 metric tons of high-purity steel annually
- Full capacity at that facility by the end of 2027
- A third site that could raise annual output to 500,000 metric tons by 2030
Even the 2030 target would represent only a small share of the approximately 80 million metric tons of steel produced in the United States each year. Scaling industrial technology from a pilot operation to commercial production also carries substantial technical and financial risk.
Still, Zenyuk emphasized that producing even one metric ton is an achievement. Hertha’s existing output provides a physical demonstration of the process while the company works toward much larger facilities.
A test of cost-conscious decarbonization
Hertha’s proposal rests on the idea that cleaner industrial production must also make economic sense. Rather than asking steelmakers to accept higher costs for a fully carbon-free process, the company is attempting to cut emissions and expenses at the same time.
Whether the furnace can preserve those advantages at commercial scale remains to be seen. Its progress will depend on successfully expanding production from one metric ton per day to thousands of tons per year while maintaining steel quality, lower costs and reduced emissions.
Steel demand is unlikely to disappear, making improvements to its production consequential even when they do not eliminate emissions entirely. Hertha Metals is betting that a simpler furnace, lower operating costs and the possibility of switching to hydrogen later can offer the industry a practical transition path.
Original reporting: revew.
Originally reported by revew.