Global steelmaker ArcelorMittal has announced a group-wide commitment to being carbon neutral by 2050, after achieving the target of reducing emissions by 30 percent by 2030 for its European business.
The company has identified two low emissions steelmaking routes to lead it to carbon neutral steelmaking. The first one is the Hydrogen DRI route, which uses hydrogen as a reducing agent. A demonstration plant in Hamburg, where ArcelorMittal owns Europe’s only operational DRI-EAF plant, is currently planned with a targeted start-up in 2023. The second route is Smart Carbon, which is centered around modifying the blast furnace route to create carbon neutral steelmaking through the use of circular carbon. Start-up of the key projects is targeted in 2022.
“We are working on various pilot technologies which have excellent potential. In Hamburg, where we own and operate Europe’s only DRI-EAF facility, we will test not only the ability of hydrogen to reduce iron ore and form DRI, but also then test that carbon-free DRI in the EAF in the actual steelmaking process,” Aditya Mittal, president of ArcelorMittal, said. He added, “If the world is to achieve net zero by 2050 it will require all parts of the economy in all regions of the world to contribute. As the world’s leading steel company, we believe we have a responsibility to lead the efforts to decarbonize the steelmaking process, which today has a significant carbon footprint.”