Luxembourg-headquartered steel giant ArcelorMittal has announced that its Sestao plant in Spain will become the world’s first full-scale zero carbon-emissions steel plant, as a result of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the Spanish government for an investment of €1 billion in the construction of a green hydrogen direct reduced iron (DRI) plant at the company’s plant in Gijón, as well as a new hybrid electric arc furnace (EAF). The investment will reduce carbon emissions at ArcelorMittal’s Spanish operations by up to 4.8 million mt within the next five years. The new DRI plant, which will be the first of its kind in Spain, and the EAF will be in production before the end of 2025.
The green hydrogen DRI plant will have a capacity of 2.3 million mt, while the new hybrid EAF will have a capacity of 1.1 million mt. The Gijón DRI plant will also feed the Sestao plant with around one million mt of DRI to be used feedstock for its two EAFs. This means that by 2025 ArcelorMittal Sestao will produce 1.6 million mt of steel and be the world’s first full-scale steel plant to achieve zero carbon-emissions.
In addition to the investments in the DRI and EAF installations in Gijón, ArcelorMittal will invest €50 million in Sestao.