This founder is making cheaper, cleaner steel | MIT Technology Review

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Skip to ContentMIT Technology ReviewFeaturedTopicsNewslettersEventsAudioMIT Technology ReviewFeaturedTopicsNewslettersEventsAudio2026 Innovators Under 35View all the innovatorsClimate change and energyThis founder is making cheaper, cleaner steelLaureen Meroueh developed a method that cuts the costs—and the emissions—of steelmaking.
By Bridget Reed Morawskiarchive pageSeptember 8, 2026Age:34Affiliation:Hertha MetalsMIRANDA BARNES The steel industry isn’t exactly known for innovation. Very little has changed about purifying iron ore since the process was invented and commercialized in the 1850s. The majority of steelmakers melt solid iron ore at dizzyingly high temperatures inside blast furnaces, where the material reacts with gases to trigger chemical reactions that remove oxygen. It then undergoes further refining to purify it before it is made into products like rebar and car frames. The process relies on coal, and it generates roughly 7% of the carbon emissions that drive climate change—about as much as the fashion industry. Decarbonization has proved difficult: Profit margins are tight and furnaces have long service lives, making investment tough to justify. Now Laureen Meroueh may have found a way to clean up steelmaking without driving up the price. Meroueh, the founder of Hertha Metals, invented a new furnace that simplifies the chemistry behind the process. Her method turns iron ore into refined liquid steel in a single step, and it swaps coal for natural gas. Together, those changes slash emissions by at least half, she says, and cut costs by 25% compared with steelmaking business as usual.
If it catches on, the tech could be transformative. “There’s huge value in reducing the size of this production system,” says Iryna Zenyuk, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. “They’re massive. They’re inefficient and require a lot of energy input, so even if they just save energy efficiency, that’s already a big step.” Hertha’s approach focuses on what it can fix about the steel industry now, as opposed to waiting around for a zero-carbon system. Still, it’s a risky endeavor, but pushing limits isn’t new for Meroueh. At 12 she was accepted into a pilot program to take college-­level courses through Florida Atlantic University in lieu of a traditional secondary education. She was immediately drawn to engineering and explored topics including calculus and ocean wave energy.
Despite the rigorous coursework, she would spend hours sitting in trees and surfing, which fostered a deep appreciation for nature and a desire to safeguard it. “I don’t know how you can’t be drawn toward trying to help protect that,” she says.  Now 34, Meroueh has let that passion inform her professional goals. After finishing her PhD in mechanical engineering at MIT, she led a green hydrogen startup before founding Hertha in 2022. A first-generation Lebanese-American from an entrepreneurial family, she saw starting her own company as a typical path. “Seeing how common it is to take that jump to start your own business is what made me feel like ‘This is normal,’” she explains on a video call from her office at Hertha’s pilot plant in Conroe, Texas, just north of Houston. That facility can produce one metric ton of steel per day. “One ton per day is a big metric for steel,” says Rajesh Swaminathan, a partner at Khosla Ventures, one of the company’s investors. (Hertha had raised about $20 million in funding as of July 2026.)  Swaminathan says the company’s scale-up is “impressive,” especially given how little the team has spent. Competitors, he notes, have created far less steel with $50 million or $100 million in funding. Related StoryFour nuclear reactors hit a big milestone in the USRead nextHertha’s approach focuses on what it can fix about the industry now, as opposed to waiting around for a zero-carbon system. While other approaches to making green steel center on using hydrogen to free oxygen from iron ore—a method that could one day cut or eliminate emissions—Meroueh says Hertha is content for the time being with a continued reliance on fossil fuels, mainly to keep costs down. The current Hertha plant could eventually switch to a fully decarbonized system without drastically changing the hardware, she says, if hydrogen becomes more affordable.  In the meantime, plans are underway to expand into a new plant next to the existing one. The facility is slated to produce 10,000 metric tons of high-purity steel per year and should reach full capacity by the end of 2027. By 2030, Meroueh believes, Hertha can up its output to 500,000 metric tons per year with the addition of a third site. That’s only a fraction of the approximately 80 million metric tons of steel produced annually in the US, but Zenyuk says making even one metric ton is still an achievement. In Meroueh’s mind, the world isn’t going to outgrow its need for steel, so she’s asking another question: “How can we be smarter about how we make things … so that it’s also not going to harm us in the long term?” by Bridget Reed MorawskiShareShare story on linkedinShare story on facebookShare story on emailPopularA fundamental flaw leaves LLMs strikingly vulnerable to attackWill Douglas HeavenAnthropic found a hidden space where Claude puzzles over conceptsWill Douglas HeavenSperm donors need limits, says a European fertility groupJessica HamzelouAI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiringMichelle KimDeep DiveClimate change and energyFour nuclear reactors hit a big milestone in the USAchieving criticality is just the first step toward power for the grid.
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Laureen Meroueh, founder of Hertha Metals, has developed a novel method for steelmaking that aims to reduce both the costs and environmental emissions associated with the process. The conventional steel industry relies on processes involving melting solid iron ore at extremely high temperatures in blast furnaces, where chemical reactions remove oxygen, a procedure that historically utilized coal and contributes approximately seven percent of global carbon emissions. Decarbonizing this heavy industry has proven challenging due to tight profit margins and the extended service life of existing furnaces, making significant investment difficult to justify. Meroueh’s innovation addresses these hurdles by creating a new furnace that simplifies the underlying chemistry of steel production, enabling the transformation of iron ore into refined liquid steel in a single step while substituting coal with natural gas. This integrated approach allows Hertha Metals to achieve reductions in emissions by at least half and decrease operational costs by twenty-five percent compared to standard steelmaking practices.

This technological shift is viewed as potentially transformative because it focuses on improving the efficiency of current production systems rather than waiting for a complete zero-carbon infrastructure. The importance of reducing the scale and energy input required by these massive production facilities has been highlighted by experts, who note that increased energy efficiency alone represents a significant advancement. Meroueh’s work stems from a background that fostered a deep appreciation for nature and an inclination toward engineering, evidenced by her pursuit of advanced coursework and subsequent doctoral studies in mechanical engineering at MIT. This background informed her entrepreneurial trajectory after she founded Hertha Metals in 2022.

Hertha Metals' strategy is pragmatic, focusing on immediate industrial improvements while acknowledging the complexity of full decarbonization. While other methods explore using hydrogen to liberate oxygen from iron ore as a long-term solution, Meroueh's current approach prioritizes cost management by leveraging existing energy sources while maintaining future scalability. The company is currently planning expansion, including constructing a new facility alongside their existing plant to increase production capacity. Initial plans target producing ten thousand metric tons of high-purity steel annually by 2027, with projections suggesting the potential to reach five hundred thousand metric tons per year by 2030 through the addition of further sites. This expansion demonstrates an ambition to significantly impact the global steel supply, contributing only a fraction of the approximately eighty million metric tons produced annually in the United States. Ultimately, Meroueh seeks to address the long-term environmental impact by focusing on making the process itself smarter and less harmful for the future.