Steel does not require coke (which can also be made from things other than coal): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wik

Steel does not require coke (which can also be made from things other than coal): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron Steel is <2% of US coal consumption, too. It's basically irrelevant to coal as a pollution or economic issue. Any resource that uses coal can be replaced by a renewable source. Coal is just a carbon source, and carbon is one of the most accessible elements. Producing very pure carbon from biomaterials produces energy and is very similar to the production of coke from coal. It's very economical and the only reason it isn't used is because coal is so insanely cheap.