David Dunand
Northwestern University, IL·Materials Science
Steelmaking is a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions because it uses coke, a form of carbon, to strip oxygen from iron ore. One alternative is "green" hydrogen, made by splitting water with renewable electricity, which removes oxygen and leaves water instead of CO2.
- Fields
Materials Science
Engineering
- Topics
hydrogen reduction
green hydrogen
green steel
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Oct 2026
What they work on
- Determine how hydrogen co-reduction of iron oxide blended with nickel, chromium, tungsten, molybdenum or manganese oxides changes reaction speed and phase stability, using in situ x-ray diffraction during reduction.
- Identify the transient phases, such as FeO, Fe3O4 and new mixed phases, that form during one-pot hydrogen reduction of oxide blends, and explain the mechanisms behind faster kinetics.
- Predict reaction mechanisms and microstructure development with CALPHAD thermodynamic calculations, phase-field simulations and finite-element modeling.
- Characterize the microstructures and properties of the binary and ternary ferroalloys and alloy steels produced by direct hydrogen reduction.
More about the research
This project asks whether hydrogen can turn blends of metal oxides directly into alloy steels, such as stainless steel (iron, nickel and chromium), in a single step and a single pot. Today's approach makes each alloying metal separately and then combines them with iron.
Why it matters
Replacing coke with green hydrogen could sharply cut CO2 emissions from steel production. A one-step route from mixed oxide ores to stainless and other alloy steels could be faster and more efficient than current multi-step processes. This could help decarbonize industry, support a domestic hydrogen economy and make US production of high-value alloy steels more competitive.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
Northwestern University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 536 research doctorates a year.
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