ARCELORMITTAL said it will use direct reduced iron (DRI) and Smart Carbon technologies to reduce its global carbon emissions intensity by 25%, by 2030. The steel and mining company expects to invest about US$10bn to achieve its goal.
The target relates to ArcelorMittal’s scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sources owned and controlled by a company. Scope 2 emissions indirect emissions, associated with generating energy consumed by a company.
ArcelorMittal announced its target with the release of its second climate action report on 29 July. The target would see it achieve 1.54 t CO2e/t of steel (down from 2.06 t CO2e in 2018), by 2030. The company has also increased its European 2030 carbon emissions intensity reduction goal from 30% to 35%. The new goal would see the company’s European emissions intensity go down from 1.7 t CO2e to 1.11 t CO2e. The company’s total global and European emissions were 152.2m t CO2e and 67.4m t CO2e, respectively, in 2018.
In its latest climate action report, ArcelorMittal provides a roadmap illustrating what it expects in the journey to net zero steelmaking. ArcelorMittal announced its goal to achieve net zero by 2050 in September 2020. In its report it identifies five areas to focus on to achieve net zero.
One of the five focus areas is steelmaking transformation. The company expects that during the coming decade, assets used to make steel will undergo a transformation on a scale not seen for more than 100 years. This will, in the first phase, see a transition from using coal (in blast furnaces) to natural gas (in DRI plants), which would then be followed by green hydrogen DRI, that relies on hydrogen gas for reduction. DRI involves removing oxygen from ore, or other iron bearing compounds, in the solid state. Using green hydrogen to fuel plants would enable zero carbon emissions.
Source : https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/arcelormittal-using-dri-and-smart-carbon-to-achieve-clean-steel/