Arcelor Mittal collaborates with Midrex Technologies for Green Steel Production

The European Union is taking climate protection very seriously. The increasingly stricter environment, climate protection regulations and rising costs through emissions trading are turning up the heat for the industry. EU has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% compared the corresponding levels from 1990 whereas by 2050, they are to be cut by as much as 80 to 95%.

As a result of this, the European steel producing companies are trying to fundamentally change their manufacturing processes through a number of pilot projects and test facilities in order to reduce these unwanted emissions.

One such company that has already started working on the same is steel giant Arcelor Mittal. In May 2019, ArcelorMittal first revealed its ambition to significantly reduce its global CO2 emissions and to be carbon neutral in its European operations by 2050. As a part of its strategy to reduce Co2 emissions, the company had announced that hydrogen will be used at Hamburg plant for the direction of iron ore.

Taking this forward, yesterday Arcelor Mittal said that a renowned technology partner Midrex Technology have been roped in to design the 'Demonstration Plant'. Both companies have now signed a framework collaboration agreement (FCA) to cooperate on several projects, ranging from research and development to the implementation of new technologies.

In a first stage, the demonstration plant would use hydrogen sourced from natural gas. Later, the hydrogen would come from renewable energy sources, such as from wind farms off the northern German coast. This conversion would take place once availability is ensured and economic costs are determined.

Combining the expertise of Midrex and ArcelorMittal, the demonstration plant in Hamburg is meant to demonstrate the large-scale production and use of direct reduced iron (DRI), which is made from 100% hydrogen as the reductant. During the process, iron oxide pellets are reduced to metallic iron, the raw material for high quality steel, by extracting oxygen using natural gas. The planned demonstration plant would produce about 100,000 tons of direct reduced iron per year.

In Hamburg, ArcelorMittal is already producing steel using DRI technology. The existing Midrex plant at the Hamburg site had the lowest CO2 emissions for high-quality steel production in Europe, according to ArcelorMittal.

The effort is one of a number of initiatives underway as the company aimed at reducing carbon emissions. For instance, at its Ghent plant, waste carbon gases will be used for the production of alternative fuels or in chemical products. Likewise, methods are tested in which bio-coal from waste wood is used instead of coking coal as a reducing agent in the blast furnace.