ArcelorMittal and Sekisui Chemical, a Japanese plastics manufacturer, will partner for a project to recycle carbon waste from steelmaking.
The total investment for the project is an estimated $1.9mn and the technology will undergo three years of testing, beginning in the third quarter of this year, at an ArcelorMittal laboratory in Asturias, Spain.
Through this project, the carbon emitted during the steelmaking process will be withdrawn from the waste gas. The waste carbon will then be converted into a Synthesis Gas rich in carbon monoxide through a process developed by Sekisui Chemical and readied as an iron ore reduction agent alternative. This process reduces the volume of fossil-fuel resources needed for steelmaking.
The partnership is expected to assist ArcelorMittal in achieving its target of reducing carbon emissions in Europe by 30pc by 2030 and become carbon-neutral by 2050.
This partnership follows ArcelorMittal’s recent plans to construct a hydrogen direct reduced iron (DRI) facility at its Gijón plant in support of moving from blast furnace-based steelmaking.