In December 2022, ArcelorMittal and Lanzatech opened Steelanol in the port of Gent. Steelanol houses a bio-reactor that transforms carbon-rich waste gasses from ArcelorMittal’s steelproduction into ethanol. This steel industry CCU plant is the first of its kind in Europe. The produced ethanol can be used as a raw material for the chemical and cosmetic industry.
When reaching its full capacity, the Steelanol plant will produce 80 million liters of ethanol and the annual carbon emissions by ArcelorMittal in Gent will be reduced by 125.000 tonnes. As the blast furnaces use coal as energy source, the annual production of ca. 5.5 million tones of steel comes with a price in the form of 9 millon tones of CO2-emissions per year. Therefore the impact of Steelanol is huge, especially for a single company. As direct or indirect electrification is expeted for the steelsector in furture, Steelanol is expected to be of most importance in the transition towards 2050.
Source EOS wetenschap
