A Systematic Literature Review of Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Trade-offs Across Green Steel Pathways

Background The steel industry is a major source of global CO 2 emissions, so reducing emissions from steel production is important for meeting climate targets. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely used to compare the environmental performance of different steel production routes. Methods This systematic literature review examined LCA studies published between 2016 and 2026 on Hydrogen-Based Direct Reduced Iron (H-DRI), electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, and Blast Furnace-Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Scopus was used as the main database, while Google Scholar was used as a supplementary source. The review considered GHG emissions, energy use, water consumption, and other environmental impacts. Results The reviewed studies show that H-DRI using renewable electricity can reduce GHG emissions by about 60–96% compared with conventional BF-BOF production. Scrap-based EAF generally reports 400–600 kg CO 2 -eq per tonne of steel, while BF-BOF with CCS can reduce emissions by about 30–50%. Conclusions H-DRI and renewable electricity-based EAF have strong potential for reducing steel-sector emissions. However, their performance varies with electricity and hydrogen sources, resource availability, system boundaries, and LCA assumptions. More consistent LCA methods, wider geographical coverage, and greater consideration of Circular Economy principles are needed.