ArcelorMittal announces group-wide commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050

Decarbonisation, the circularity of production activities and the search for a form of business that can combine development, profitability and sustainability has been addressed on the r MIX blog many times, most often addressing the issues of the circular economy with a focus on recycled plastic.

With this article, we want to underline the commitment of companies for more sustainable and circular production also in the metals field.

ArcelorMittal announces a group-wide commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050, building on the commitment made in 2019 for its European business to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050.

Commenting on the 2050 net zero target, before speaking on the challenge of decarbonising the steel industry today at the Financial Times Commodities Conference, Aditya Mittal, President and CFO, said:

“If the world wants to reach net zero by 2050, it will require all parts of the economy in all regions of the world to contribute. As the world's leading steel company, we believe we have a responsibility to lead efforts to decarbonize the steelmaking process, which today has a significant carbon footprint.

“Steel will remain a vital material for our world and indeed is the most circular material of all. Our challenge is to be able to produce steel using clean energy technologies on a commercial scale, while remaining competitive in the global steel industry.

“We are working on various pilot technologies that have excellent potential. In Hamburg, where we own and operate the only DRI-EAF plant in Europe, we will test not only the ability of hydrogen to reduce iron ore and form DRI, but we will also test that carbon-free DRI in EAF in real steel -manufacturing process.

“Hydrogen has great potential but, given the significant transition costs, we also believe in working on solutions for the traditional integrated route. This essentially follows the path of bioenergy, carbon capture, utilization and storage, which, as highlighted by both the IPCC and IEA, will be key to reaching net zero by 2050.

What is also interesting about this route is that it has the potential to not only provide carbon-neutral steel, but also other products that will help the chemical industry produce plastic in a carbon neutral way.

“Critical to making the goal a reality will be policy to enable steel to remain competitive during decarbonisation, particularly as each region of the world moves at a different pace.

We intend to actively engage with governments to chart a way forward that allows the steel industry to make significant progress through a carefully designed policy that protects against carbon leakage."

ArcelorMittal has identified two low-emission steelmaking pathways, both of which have the potential to lead to zero-emission steel production:

• The Hydrogen-DRI route, which uses hydrogen as a reducing agent. A demonstration plant in Hamburg, where ArcelorMittal has the only operational DRI-EAF plant in Europe, is currently planned with a targeted start-up in 2023.

• The Smart Carbon pathway focuses on modifying the blast furnace pathway to create carbon-neutral steel production through the use of circular carbon – in the form of sustainable biomass or carbon-containing waste streams – and capture and use (CCU) and carbon storage (CCS).

ArcelorMittal is well advanced in building several commercial-scale projects to test and demonstrate a range of Smart Carbon technologies. The start-up target for key projects is expected in 2022.

While both avenues have the potential to deliver carbon-neutral steel by 2050, we believe Smart Carbon can deliver sooner and make a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions this decade, while industrial-scale manufacturing from Hydrogen-DRI route may be significant before 2030 due to current high costs.

The Company has also previously outlined the policy steps it believes are necessary for zero-emission steel production to become a reality, which include:

1. A global level playing field that avoids the risk of carbon leakage through mechanisms such as green border adjustment

2. Access to abundant and affordable clean energy

3. Policies to support the development of the necessary clean energy infrastructure

4. Access to sustainable finance for low-emission steel production e

5. Policies that accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

ArcelorMittal will provide further details to support its 2050 net zero target in its second climate action report, which is expected to be published by the end of 2020.

ArcelorMittal is a member of the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) and is an active member of ETC's ongoing Net Zero Steel Initiative in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. ArcelorMittal is also actively engaged with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) to define a viable SBT for the steel industry taking into account the two distinct routes in operation today.

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Photo&Info: ArcelorMittal