The European division of the world's largest steel company, ArcelorMittal, announced that already this year its customers will receive the first 30,000 tons of steel smelted with zero greenhouse gas emissions.
ArcelorMittal Europe will expand this offer to 120,000 tonnes in 2021 and 600,000 tonnes by 2022. The company said that all of its steel will be carbon-neutral by 2050.
The strategy for the transition to green steel production is centered around two main technological routes, as presented in First Climate Action Report by ArcelorMittal Europe, published earlier this year:
- Hydrogen use in DRI-EAF and blast furnace
- Extending the Smart Carbon route to also use hydrogen
Hydrogen plays a central role in the company's decarbonization strategy. ArcelorMittal Europe is developing a series of industrial hydrogen projects for use in blast furnace steelmaking that will begin to deliver significant CO2 savings over the next five years.
Ultimately, to reach zero, this hydrogen must also be "green" (produced by electrolysis, which is powered by renewable electricity). Therefore, ArcelorMittal is developing new plants for the production of green hydrogen using electrolysers.
“Today we provide an important update on our progress towards our goal of 30% CO2 reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050, including highlighting the vital role that hydrogen has in our strategy ... In parallel we continue to implement our Smart Carbon technology, which we are convinced also offers enormous potential given that the world will need so-called Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technologies to reach net zero by 2050, ”said Aditya Mittal , President and Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal Europe.
