Exciting news for green technology! Currently, researchers at the European Space Agency are conducting tests to explore the potential of a highly promising fuel for a pollution-free future. This development could mark the dawn of a new era—the “iron energy age”— using metal fuels as a form of sustainable energy to significantly reduce the environmental impact, and even provide water for astronauts in space.

One of the main challenges for space travel is supplying energy to astronauts on the Moon, and according to the European Space Agency, iron powder could be the solution.

“Using solar energy, not only aluminum and silicon powders can be produced from lunar minerals, but also hydrogen and oxygen can be harnessed from lunar ice.. The hydrogen can then be used to convert lunar dust that is high in iron and titanium to produce water and iron powder. The metallic powders and oxygen from the water ice can be used as propellants rockets or ground transportation and the water by product can even be used as drinking water.”

To make this possible, scientists have been conducting experiments where they burn iron powder in zero gravity conditions to better understand “discrete burning”; a process in which fuel ignites due to the heat of other fuels surrounding it.

According to the European Space Agency, iron energy doesn’t produce carbon dioxide like traditional fuels. Instead, the leftover product is iron oxide, also known as rust. This means no harmful gasses are emitted during the burning process, giving metal fuels some incredible potential as a sustainable energy option for the future.

From there, that rust can easily be collected, processed to remove the oxygen it contains, and then recycled. By using Iron as a fuel source that is driven by sustainable energy, it can create a circular energy storage system that is endlessly recyclable, like something out of a utopia! 

The researchers closely analyzed how iron dust had burned in microgravity conditions. Using specialized cameras to record the process in high detail, they are starting to create computer models that can pinpoint the ideal conditions required to ultimately enable the use of metal fuel and iron energy here on Earth.

In fact, there is already a plant using iron as its fuel source to generate steam, and what makes this plant truly inspiring is that it stands alone as the first plant of its kind to use iron energy. This innovative green technology plant has been developed by Renewable Iron Fuel Technology (RIFT), an award-winning start-up.

RIFT has ambitious plans for this project, aiming to achieve a substantial reduction of one gigaton of CO2 emissions annually by 2050. To put this into perspective, that is equivalent to the weight of 10,000 fully-loaded U.S. aircraft carriers.

With further development, larger iron power plants could produce even more energy, providing a carbon-free fuel option for factories and industrial processes by using iron energy.