DULUTH – A research arm of the University of Minnesota Duluth is in line to gain federal funding to further a "green" iron manufacturing study, it announced Tuesday.

The Department of Energy has awarded the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) $1.3 million in its efforts to study the feasibility of a one-gigawatt hydrogen-based iron plant in northern Minnesota, potentially on the Iron Range. It would be the first of its kind, offering a low-carbon supply of iron for the steel industry and potentially findings for reducing carbon use by others.

The Trump administration's pause on federal grants and loans, also announced Tuesday, casts some doubt on the grant, though a federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze later Tuesday.

However, the research addresses many Trump administration priorities, including new jobs, competitive American industry and national security, said the institute's executive director, Rolf Weberg.

"We remain confident that we're going to be pursuing this effort with federal support," he said. "This really represents an opportunity for Minnesota to attract and drive investment in next generation industry."

Weberg called the project "a big, audacious goal," intended to transform several Minnesota industries: iron and steel, cement and concrete, ammonia and fertilizers, and liquid fuels. It would involve those industries directly linking renewable energy and electrolytic hydrogen to production, replacing carbon-based fuels and feedstocks in their industrial processes, a news release says.

This is the first project under the Midwest Industrial Transformation Initiative, a coordinated effort between the NRRI, the Great Plains Institute, West Central Research and Outreach Center, area tribes and others.

The study will look into the size of a plant; how much hydrogen, power and land would be necessary; impacts to water, air and communities; and opportunities for tribal and community power generation. Once funding is secured, that could take a year.

One gigawatt of energy use is the rough equivalent to the energy use of 1 million households. Minneapolis uses about half that, Weberg said, for comparison.

The study, which U.S. Steel supports, is estimated to cost about $5 million, with $2 million expected from the state and donations from others.

"As the nation's primary source of iron ore, the Mesabi Iron Range is poised for green iron innovations," Ida Rukavina, commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, said in the release.