Edward, tell us how the business idea was born and what it is like to work with your own father in a family business?
My father started researching the recycling of residues and waste from the steel industry already in the late 60s. He developed and tested a hydrogen-based process in a laboratory environment, after which a furnace for production use was built at a steel mill in the mid-70s. The furnace was successfully used to recycle pure metals from residual products with zero carbon emissions, but as environmental issues were not a priority at the time, there was not enough industrial commitment to adopt Dad's new and innovative technology. Today, however, environmental and recycling issues are very important, so Dad and I looked for Dad's drawings in 2016. We improved and developed his design with the help of the technological advances that have taken place over more than 40 years, and in 2019 we obtained a patent for Dad's groundbreaking and sustainable solution.
Throughout my childhood, I have experienced my father's great frustration that his solution for how to increase the recycling of valuable metals in an environmentally friendly and fossil-free way has not been used. It is therefore now extremely fun and rewarding for me to be able to help, together with my father, to see his dream and life's work realized.

If you could describe a dream scenario from now and 3 years from now, what would it look like? Where is your technology implemented and what effects can we see then?
With the help of external investors, we will now build a full-scale commercial plant and expect to be the first in the world to deliver completely fossil-free iron and steel in 2022, and thus be able to concretely start contributing to reducing the steel industry's carbon emissions to help achieve our challenging climate goals. My wish scenario is that after we have delivered our first fossil-free iron, and it has become widely known that GreenIron has both a sustainable and profitable solution to offer, all steel mills will want to take responsibility for reducing their environmental footprint and start using GreenIron's fossil-free solution.

What will it take to reach your desired scenario? How far have you come on your journey and what steps are left?
Achieving my desired scenario requires an urgent acceptance and use of GreenIron's technology so that we can start contributing to the reduction of non-essential carbon emissions as soon as possible. We therefore intend to offer our technology under license so that our solution can quickly be used globally by the steel industry. To enable and support rapid expansion, we now also need to start building an organization with competent employees who share our values and are passionate about curbing the climate threat. That journey can begin with us managing to achieve the financing for the first plant through the issue that we are currently carrying out with the help of Swedbank. Photo above: Peter Knutson