Improving iron making efficiency?

Hey friends, I’m finally where I can move into steel making but with all the fireclay I’ll need it seems like flint is a bottleneck. Idk where the nearest bauxite desert is but it isn’t nearby. I want to have a Victorian industrial complex where I’ve got multiple kilns and furnaces going, multiple power hammers (and that’s to satisfy my personal fascination with early modern industry)

How can I reduce reliance on flint? If I made bloomeries out of refractory brick would I get more bricks back? Is there a way to get iron other than bloomeries? What do you guys find eases your efforts into mass steel production?