In Belgium, ArcelorMittal Ghent, part of global iron and steel major ArcelorMittal has officially commissioned a first for the European steel industry to convert waste wood into biocoal to reduce fossil coal consumption at its steel plant in Ghent.
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ArcelorMittal Belgium is fully engaged in implementing an action plan to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 35 percent by 2030 compared to 2018 and to become climate neutral by 2050.
Within this framework, ArcelorMittal Belgium has commissioned a EUR 35 million plant at its steel mill in Ghent to process waste wood into a biocoal suitable for the blast furnace process, hence lowering the volume of fossil coal used.
ArcelorMittal Belgium has the ambition to decarbonize its steel production. In this context, we are fully engaged in implementing an action plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 35 percent by 2030 compared to 2018 and to become climate neutral by 2050, said Manfred Van Vlierberghe, CEO of ArcelorMittal Belgium.
First-of-its-kind plant
The biocoal project is expected to reduce annual carbon emissions by 112,500 tonnes. The Torero biocoal plant will convert 88,000 tonnes of waste wood into 37,500 tonnes of biocoal each year.
Developed in partnership with expert research organizations Joanneum Research (AT), University of Graz (AT), Chalmers Technical University (SE), and Perpetual Next (NL), formerly TorrCoal, the developer of the carbonization process technology, the operation of this plant will lead to 16 new permanent direct jobs at ArcelorMittal Belgium.
Change starts with those who dare to lead the way. That is exactly what ArcelorMittal is doing with Torero by being the first to build a biogenic-based carbonization plant on-site. We are excited about the Torero project, which is based on Perpetual Next’s C-Vertr carbonization technology, coming to live on one of the largest steel plants in Europe. Switching to biocoal, produced from locally sourced waste wood, is a very effective route to lower the CO2 footprint in the steel-making process today and become circular. We have spent over a decade perfecting our patented C-Vertr carbonization technology. We are very proud to support ArcelorMittal as a technology partner, said Martijn Dekker, CTO at Perpetual Next.
TORERO project completed
The commissioned biocoal plant is part of another EU co-funded large-scale demonstration project called “TORrefying wood with Ethanol as a Renewable Output” (TORERO).
The EU co-funded project aims to demonstrate “a cost-, resource-, and energy-efficient technology concept for producing bioethanol from a wood waste feedstock, fully integrated into a large-scale, industrially functional steel mill.”
The use of biocoal in the blast furnace process will result in biogenic blast furnace gases (BFG) which will be transformed into ethanol by the Steelanol facility which was officially opened in December 2022.
The ethanol in turn can be used as a building block to produce a variety of chemical products including transport fuels, paints, plastics, clothing, and even cosmetic perfume, hence helping to support the decarbonization efforts of the chemical sector.
The ethanol will be jointly marketed by ArcelorMittal and LanzaTech under the “Carbalyst” brand name.
We want to reduce not only our carbon footprint but also our waste footprint – our steel company has a roadmap to zero carbon emissions and zero waste. We will do this step by step, in a responsible way, and the commissioning of the Torero plant is one such step – partially replacing fossil coal with biocoal. This fits perfectly with our XCarb program that brings together all of ArcelorMittal’s products and steelmaking activities with reduced, low, and zero carbon emissions, as well as broader initiatives and innovation projects, into a single effort aimed at achieving demonstrable progress toward net zero carbon steel, ended Manfred Van Vlierberghe.
