ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) and partners Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), BHP (ASX:BHP), and Mitsubishi Development have started operating a pilot carbon capture unit on the blast furnace off-gas at ArcelorMittal’s Gent steelmaking site in Belgium.
The pilot carbon capture unit will operate for one to two years at Gent to test the feasibility of progress to full-scale deployment of the technology. The consortium say it would be able to capture a sizeable portion of the Gent site emissions if successful.
Engineers have been working on site since January 2024 to assemble and commission the unit.
In October 2022, the four parties announced their collaboration on a multi-year trial of MHI’s trademarked carbon capture technology – the Advanced KM CDR Process – at multiple carbon dioxide (CO2) emission points, starting at the Gent steelmaking site.
To further understand how MHI’s carbon capture technology can be incorporated into existing steel plants, ArcelorMittal is facilitating the trial in Gent with MHI supplying its proprietary carbon capture technology and supporting the engineering studies.
BHP and Mitsubishi Development are key suppliers of high-quality steelmaking raw materials to ArcelorMittal’s European operations and are supporting trial funding.
The pilot carbon capture unit will be testing initially with blast furnace and reheating furnace gas and has the potential to be trialled to capture steelmaking gases such as reformer flue gas from a Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) plant.
Development of the carbon capture solution at Gent could feed into multiple CO₂ transport and storage projects under development in the North Sea region and contribute to global technological solutions required for decarbonisation of steel production.
Mitsubishi Development Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Tauchi says the pilot is a significant step towards advancement of carbon capture technology as a potential solution to achieve solid emission reductions in the steel sector.
The EU has an objective to achieve an annual CO₂ storage capacity of 50 million tonnes by 2030, proposed under the Net-Zero Industry Act.
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates CCUS technology needs to apply to more than 37% of primary steel production by 2050 – equivalent to 399Mtpa of CO₂ – for a net zero emissions scenario.
ArcelorMittal Belgium CEO Manfred Van Vlierberghe says ArcelorMittal’s decarbonisation efforts can be summarised in three axes.
“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,” Van Vlierberghe says.
“Here, the installation of the carbon capture unit on our Gent blast furnace is a great example. The main ambition is to achieve completely carbon-free processes. A radical change is difficult, so we embrace every step that takes us towards our goal.”
The trial at Gent will have two phases. The first phase involves separating and capturing the CO₂ from the top gas from the blast furnace at a rate of around 300kg of CO₂ a day – a technical challenge due to the differing levels of contaminants in the top gas.
The second phase involves 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.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Unsplash & ArcelorMittal
