(Bloomberg) — ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s biggest
steelmaker, plans to use waste gases from its steel operations
to produce low-carbon fuel for vehicles.
ArcelorMittal will work with Primetals Technologies USA LLC
and LanzaTech NZ Ltd. to build an 87 million-euro ($96 million)
bio-ethanol facility in Ghent, Belgium, it said Monday in a
statement. The plant will produce enough fuel for about a half-million cars.
“Steel is produced through a chemical process that results
in high levels of waste gases being emitted; this new technology
will enable us to convert some of these waste gases into fuels
that deliver significant environmental benefits when compared to
conventional fossil fuels,” Carl De Mare, vice president of
innovation at ArcelorMittal, said in the statement.
About half of the carbon used in steelmaking leaves the
process as carbon monoxide that’s either flared or used to heat
and power the steel mill, both of which result in carbon dioxide
emissions, according to the statement. LanzaTech’s technology
uses microbes that eat these waste gases and turn them into bio-ethanol, a low-carbon transport fuel that can be blended with
conventional gasoline to reduce dirty emissions.
The plant will be built in two phases with construction of
the first due to start later this year, according to the
statement. The entire project is expected to be complete in
2018, when it will produce about 47,000 tons of ethanol a year.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Louise Downing in London at
ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Randall Hackley