In 1911 a German scientist, Friedrich Bergius, filed the world’s first patent on a process to produce steel using hydrogen. But it wasn’t until 1973 that Nippon Steel could design a steel-making facility based on the process. Then, in 2016, the Swedish steelmaker SSAB started working on the deep tech, teaming up with iron-ore leader LKAB and energy giant Vattenfall. Five years later, they succeeded in manufacturing the closest thing the world has seen to fossil-free steel, using green hydrogen to make steel with (almost) no carbon emissions. SSAB’s Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology facility, which emits mostly water vapor, will attain commercial production in three years’ time—which will mark the fruition of yet another deep tech.
As new sciences evolve, technologies mature, and customer demands are changing, deep tech is increasingly enabling business to develop radically new products and processes. We use the term “deep tech” to describe the problem-driven approach to tackling huge challenges by combining new physical technologies, such as advanced material sciences, with sophisticated digital technologies, such as A.I. and soon, quantum computing. The timing is fortuitous; several global crises—such as climate change, disease, and malnutrition—are escalating, so business has to develop radically different solutions to tackle them quickly. As a result, these deep tech-driven innovations will spawn new value-creation opportunities. It begs the question: Do you have a deep tech strategy?
