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    ArcelorMittal and Mistubishi Begin Pilot Carbon Capture Unit on Blast Furnace Off-Gas to Decarbonize Steel Production

    May 23, 2024
    The carbon capture solution at Gent will serve multiple CO2 transport and storage projects under development in the North Sea region and contribute to global technological solutions required for decarbonization of steel production
    ArcelorMittal
    664f87c7720f4d4327e61948 Arcelormittal

    ArcelorMittal, along with its partners Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), BHP, and Mitsubishi Development, have begun operating a pilot carbon capture unit on the blast furnace off-gas at ArcelorMittal Gent in Belgium.

    If successful, the pilot unit will operate for one to two years at Gent to test the feasibility of progressing to full-scale deployment of MHI’s carbon capture technology, the Advanced KM CDR Process, which is expected to capture a sizeable portion of the Gent site emissions. 

    To start, the pilot will be testing with blast furnace off-gases and off-gases from the hot strip mill reheating furnace. The pilot also has the potential to be trialed to capture other steelmaking gases like reformer flue gas from a Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) plant.

    While ArcelorMittal is assisting the trial in Gent with MHI supplying its proprietary carbon capture technology and supporting the engineering studies, BHP and Mitsubishi Development, key suppliers of high-quality steelmaking raw materials to ArcelorMittal’s European operations, are supporting trial funding.

    The trial will operate in two phases. The first phase will involve separating and capturing the CO2 from the top gas of the blast furnace at a rate of around 300 kg of CO2 a day. The second phase will include testing the separating and capturing of CO2 in the off-gases in the hot strip mill reheating furnace, which burns a mixture of industrial gases, including coke gas, blast furnace gases, and natural gas.

    The development of the carbon capture solution at Gent is expected to serve multiple CO2 transport and storage projects under development in the North Sea region and contribute to global technological solutions required for decarbonizing steel production. 

    “ArcelorMittal Belgium's decarbonization efforts can be summarized in three axes,” said ArcelorMittal Belgium’s CEO Manfred Van Vlierberghe. “The first axis focuses on energy efficiency: reuse of waste heat and renewable energy; in our second axis, we are replacing coal with a combination of gas and electrification and finally, the third axis, is based on circular use of carbon - CCU and CCS to achieve completely carbon-free processes.”

    The EU has an objective to achieve an annual CO2 storage capacity of 50 million tons by 2030, as proposed under the Net-Zero Industry Act. Moreover, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that CCUS technology is required to apply to more than 37% of primary steel production by 2050, equivalent to 399 Mtpa of CO2, for the Net Zero Emissions scenario.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.