When rockets blast off Earth, they rely on tiny metal powders to help propel them into space. Now, an emerging group of startups and scientists is hoping to harness these particles for something more terrestrial: producing carbon-free energy for factories.

Powdered iron can be combusted in industrial boilers to supply the hot water and steam needed to produce everything from beer and baby formula to paper and plastic resins — without directly emitting carbon dioxide. The concept is about a decade old, but companies are just starting to make serious inroads to put the technology into practice.

Last week, the Dutch startup Renewable Iron Fuel Technology, or Rift, said it raised almost 114 million euros ($131 million) in private financing and public grants to develop its first commercial project, making it a front-runner in the space. Rift already operates two pilot units in the Netherlands. With the new investment, the firm plans to build a fuel-production plant and deploy its boilers in about 10 industrial facilities in Europe, the first of which is set to fire up in 2029.

“This represents a concrete step toward decarbonizing industrial heat at scale,” said Mark Verhagen, CEO of the Eindhoven-based Rift.

Around the world, most factories burn fossil fuels to get the heat they need for industrial processes, which is why the sector accounts for more than one-third of energy-related CO₂ pollution globally. Rift estimates that its current system can reduce emissions by almost 80%, on a life-cycle basis, when compared with those of a fossil-gas-fired boiler.

The startup is seeking to scale at a pressing time in the European Union, where manufacturers are facing tighter restrictions on emissions and new policies aimed at shifting factories toward cleaner heat sources. The region is also grappling with ballooning gas prices caused by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — and now the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran.

Rift’s approach replaces gas with iron, a highly energy-dense and abundant element that is ground down to resemble sand.

The startup begins by putting iron powder in a specialized boiler, then injecting air and making a little spark that yields a big flame. As the iron burns, it produces heat that can be used directly for manufacturing or district-heating networks. To start, Rift is focused on supplying medium-temperature heat, of around 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit).

“The only product that remains are the ashes,” Verhagen said.

Rift will initially use a small amount of virgin iron powder, sourced from industrial suppliers. But the goal is to continually recycle the ashes — which are pure iron oxide — to make new fuel. When combined with low-carbon hydrogen, iron oxide splits into water and iron powder, the latter of which will be returned to the boiler.

As a technology, iron fuel has plenty of hurdles to overcome before it can replace gas in factories. Researchers are still improving the iron-combustion process and the techniques for collecting iron oxide. Companies need to build up supply chains for sourcing and recycling iron powder. And using green hydrogen — the kind made with renewable energy — for fuel production remains challenging, given that supplies are limited and costly.

Developers also need to bring down their production costs in order to compete with the incumbent fossil fuels. Rift, for its part, is working to improve its economic performance with the buildout of its first commercial project, Verhagen noted. The company says it can currently deliver iron fuel for a price of 140 euros per metric ton.

The investment round announced on March 3 includes more than 83 million euros in Series B funding, led by the Dutch pension fund PGGM, as well as a grant of nearly 31 million euros from the EU’s Innovation Fund. Rift had previously raised 11 million euros from investors in 2024, which enabled it to conduct durability tests at its two pilot projects.

“We have closely followed Rift’s development and see strong potential for tangible industrial impact,” Tim van den Brule, investment director at PGGM Infrastructure, said in a press release. ​“Many industrial innovations stall in the transition from demonstration to realization,” he added, which is why the firm is providing Rift with capital ​“through to execution.”

Rift is not alone in this fledgling field. Other players include the Dutch startup Iron+ and the Canadian firms Altiro Energy, FeX Energy, and GH Power, along with Ferron Energy in Australia and Fenix Energy in France.

The companies can all trace their roots to early research efforts led by Philip de Goey from Eindhoven University of Technology and Jeff Bergthorson from Montreal’s McGill University. The professors were inspired to pursue metal fuels for energy purposes after observing how powders burned at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. In particular, they saw iron powder as an appealing alternative to gaseous hydrogen fuel — which has been held up as a more direct replacement for fossil gas but is difficult to store and transport.

In 2020, Eindhoven researchers and students, including Verhagen, built their first 100-kilowatt iron fuel boiler at a nearby brewery. That year, Rift spun out of the student team, with support from the Bill Gates–led Breakthrough Energy Fellows program. The startup later launched a 1-megawatt system that provides heating to some 500 homes in the Dutch city of Helmond; it operates another pilot unit at a cleantech park in Arnhem.

In 2025, Rift signed its first customer contract with the Dutch firm Kingspan Unidek, which makes building insulation and plans to install an iron-fueled boiler at one of its plants.

Verhagen said that, as well as with slotting into existing operations like Kingspan’s, the technology could also work alongside other types of clean-heat solutions that are gaining momentum globally, such as thermal batteries, which store electricity to provide on-demand heat, and highly efficient industrial heat pumps.

Iron fuel could serve as the ​“baseload” source that supplements electrified technologies, or that kicks in when electricity prices are high or otherwise constrained. ​“We see that there’s a unique fit” for Rift’s system, he said.

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After Susan Lindsay got rooftop solar panels installed on her home in Greensboro, North Carolina, she wanted the low-income households she visited as a parent educator to be able to do the same — but without the expense.

“I realized how hard that would be for any of these families I was working with, but also how quickly it reduced my energy burden,” she said. ​“I started looking around for people trying to get clean energy into the hands of people who don’t make as much money.”

Soon, Lindsay found a coalition of groups working to solarize their communities. The basic concept has been around for nearly two decades: Organizers vet installers, negotiate prices, and recruit as many residents as possible to go solar during a limited sign-up window. The more participants, the lower the cost, thanks to the power of bulk purchasing.

As part of Solarize the Triad — a campaign that covers the north-central region of North Carolina, anchored by the cities of Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point — Lindsay raised money and in-kind donations to help low- and moderate-income families go solar. Plus, she said, ​“I introduced my neighbors to all the ways they could get solar panels,” and many did. ​“I feel like I multiplied my contribution.”

Indeed, in a campaign that ran from July 2024 to the following May, Solarize the Triad led to three houses of worship and over 70 households installing solar. Now, Lindsay is among those kicking off a similar effort called Electrify the Triad, which officially launched last Saturday. The latest initiative focuses on electrification: switching out gas heat, stoves, and hot water appliances for electric versions; installing EV chargers; and increasing efficiency — all steps to reduce fossil-fuel combustion, improve indoor quality, and lower household bills.

Lindsay plans to participate in the program, too — not just recruit for it. ​“I’m doing this because I really want to be more energy-efficient and to help other people be more energy-efficient,” she said. ​“It’s not enough for me just to make my house work. We need to do this collectively.”

When it comes to electrification, ​“information is power”

Backed by many of the same nonprofit partners that made Solarize the Triad a success, including the Piedmont Environmental Alliance and the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Foundation, the electrification initiative includes contractors ready to install electric heat pumps, hook up induction stoves, upgrade electrical boxes, and make other energy-saving home improvements.

Undergirding Electrify the Triad is Bright Spaces, a Georgia-based firm that has supported over 20 Solarize campaigns around the country by bringing organizers, installers, and participants together through its online platform. Electrify the Triad is its third electrification effort; the others are in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur and Buncombe County, home to Asheville, where the company also has an office.

Of course, not all lessons from Solarize the Triad — a discrete project focused on one technology — will translate to the electrification campaign, which has no set end date. The key benefit of Electrify, said Ken Haldin, development partner for Bright Spaces, is that organizers identify contractors and help participants navigate how to cut costs and reduce their carbon footprint when they’re ready.

“With solar, you either have it or you don’t,” Haldin said. The options under the electrification umbrella, by contrast, are myriad, and a homeowner could swap out old, inefficient appliances with electric versions over time, rather than all at once. ​“It’s less binary than solar is. It’s much more a matter of choice and timing.”

The new campaign comes at a key moment for households looking to ditch their gas appliances. While the Trump White House and congressional Republicans have already eliminated some tax credits for home solar and efficiency and are attempting to dismantle others, the administration of North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a first-term Democrat, is pushing in the opposite direction.

Last year, North Carolina was the first in the country to launch a home energy rebate program created with funds from the Biden-era climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. State officials announced last month that the cash-back program aimed at low- and middle-income households, which was rolled out in phases, is now available in all 100 counties. Each family can access up to $14,000 for electrification and up to $16,000 for home energy-efficiency upgrades.

Participation in Electrify the Triad isn’t limited by income, but the state rebates will help expand it to scores of households that otherwise might not be able to afford the up-front cost of high-efficiency appliances, added insulation, and other energy-saving measures, even though the outlays will pay for themselves over time in the form of lower utility bills.

“Information is power,” Haldin said. ​“If you can be guided on the proper way to move forward” on electrification, he said, ​“then you’re already on a money-saving track. And if someone can point you to an incentive that’s applicable, now you’ve redeemed a coupon you didn’t know you had.”

Building on the success of Solarize

Among the designers and planners of Electrify the Triad is Shaleen Miller, sustainability and intergovernmental relations director for Winston-Salem. While the city’s climate target of carbon neutrality by 2050 is limited to its own vehicles, buildings, and other operations, she said, ​“what’s good for the city residents is good for the city.”

Now that the program is officially launched, other members of the team are beginning outreach. That includes Dawn Lewis, a retiree who, with her husband, recently moved from Austin, Texas, to Winston-Salem to be closer to her adult children on the East Coast.

In Texas, Lewis, a member of the United Methodist Church, had embraced the ​“creation care” philosophy. ​“Creation is this incredible gift, and we’re asked to do a good job of taking care of it, and we’ve kind of done a horrible job,” she explained. ​“So, it’s important for us to go out there and try to resolve that.”

After starting a creation care group at her church in Austin, she formed a network of groups from other Methodist churches around the city. ​“I’m working to do that same thing here,” she said, starting with Ardmore United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem and expanding to other houses of worship throughout the Yadkin Valley.

Lewis, who also participated in Solarize the Triad, said many of the same organizing tactics will apply to Electrify: reaching out to neighborhoods, businesses, and communities of faith to have person-to-person and group conversations.

“The hope is to try to get as many people as possible aware, educated, and then engaged,” she said. ​“Solarize was successful. I think this will be, too.”

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See more from Canary Media’s ​“Chart of the Week” column.

The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas — and the war in the Middle East is about to bring massive profits to its gas producers.

As the war destabilizes oil and gas production in the region, LNG prices have shot up globally. Qatar — a U.S. ally and the world’s second-largest LNG supplier — halted production of the fuel on Monday after Iranian drones targeted its energy facilities in retaliation for ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes. The country accounts for one-fifth of the global LNG supply, and the vast majority of its output goes to Asia.

Analysts say American suppliers could be in for a windfall as desperate international buyers bid top dollar to secure what fuel is available. U.S. LNG export terminals are already operating at full bore, so there is unlikely to be a surge in the volume of gas sent abroad — just in the profits firms rake in on each shipment.

Already, the effects of the energy shock are rippling across the world.

In India, the government began rationing natural gas on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Taiwan, which gets 40% of its electricity from LNG and imports heavily from Qatar, said it will take immediate measures that include sourcing more gas from the U.S.

In Europe, natural gas prices have risen less sharply than in Asia but still enough to exacerbate energy affordability problems in the region, which was plunged into an energy crisis following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. After mostly quitting Russian gas, Europe has come to rely heavily on LNG from the U.S., though in recent months it has sought to diversify through deals with Qatar and other countries as the Trump administration threatened to annex Greenland.

Since returning to power last January, the Trump administration has pushed to further expand the nation’s lead in LNG exports, despite warnings from analysts that doing so will drive up costs at home. Before the war broke out, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast that natural gas prices would climb for Americans in 2027 in part due to expanding LNG exports. The country is already on track to double its LNG export capacity by 2029.

Amid this expansion, Trump has been pressuring allies from Japan to the EU to buy even more U.S. natural gas. But the war only strengthens the case against a deeper dependence on LNG. The more a country relies on shipped-in energy, the more vulnerable it is to global shocks like the one unfolding now.

Renewables, in contrast, are a source of refuge. You install them once and for decades they produce electricity that, though tied to the weather, is completely insulated from global energy markets. Just look at Europe: The region doubled down on wind and solar following the Russian gas crisis, not because of concern for the climate but because of a desire to make its energy system as self-sufficient as possible.

Now, yet another war underscores the perils of relying on imported energy in an increasingly volatile world.

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