ArcelorMittal has commissioned a €35 million bio-coal plant in Ghent, Belgium, the first of its kind in the European steel industry. The plant will process waste wood into bio-coal, suitable for its blast furnace process at its Ghent plant.
The steelmaker estimates a reduction of annual carbon emissions by 112.5kt, with the Torero plant converting 88kt of waste wood into 37.5kt of bio-coal each year.
The use of bio-coal in the blast furnace process will produce biogas which will be transformed into ethanol by the Steelanol facility. This can then be used as a building block to produce a variety of chemical products including transport fuels, paints, plastics, clothing and even cosmetic perfume.
The ethanol will be jointly marketed by ArcelorMittal and LanzaTech under the Carbalyst® brand name.
''We are fully engaged in implementing an action plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 35% by 2030 compared to 2018 and to become climate neutral by 2050.''
Manfred Van Vlierberghe, CEO of ArcelorMittal Belgium
Manfred Van Vlierberghe, CEO of ArcelorMittal Belgium, commented: “ArcelorMittal Belgium has the ambition to decarbonize its steel production. In this context, we are fully engaged in implementing an action plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 35% by 2030 compared to 2018 and to become climate neutral by 2050. This fits perfectly with our XCarb® programme that brings together all of ArcelorMittal’s products and steelmaking activities with reduced, low and zero carbon emissions, as well as broader initiatives and innovation projects, into a single effort aimed at achieving demonstrable progress toward net zero carbon steel.”