ArcelorMittal accelerates ‘green’ steel certification

ArcelorMittal is accelerating its commitment towards becoming a zero-carbon emissions steelmaker by 2050 with the launch of a decarbonisation initiative called “XCarb”.

In a virtual conference on Wednesday attended by Kallanish, chief executive Aditya Mittal said XCarb responds to the necessity to bring all the company’s decarbonisation activity together “under a new global umbrella brand”.

ArcelorMittal is working to create its XCarb “green” steel certificates through the primary blast furnace route. It will also issue a new labelling for XCarb recycled and renewable steel made from scrap and renewable energy through the electric arc furnace route.  

The steelmaker is looking at two technology routes for decarbonisation, the “Smart Carbon” and “Innovative” DRI route. Smart Carbon involves the use of bio-mass, bio-waste and carbon capture utilisation and storage technology. The two options are not competing and are both being considered, Kallanish notes. 

The decarbonisation initiatives in ArcelorMittal Europe range from transforming biomass into bio-coal to projects such as Carbalyst. This converts blast furnace waste gas into bioethanol and reinjects waste gases from the steelmaking process into the blast furnace to reduce coal use.

These investments will be transformed into XCarb green steel certificates using “a conversion factor that represents the average CO2 intensity of integrated steelmaking in Europe”, Mittal explained.

The scheme therefore provides customers with the opportunity to buy certificates attached to their physical orders of steel, enabling them to report a reduction in their Scope 3 carbon emissions, he added. By 2022 ArcelorMittal will be able to sell 600,000 tonnes of green steel.

The other initiative involves labelling recycled and renewable steel with “XCarb recycled and renewably produced” products for customers. This will apply only to flat and long steel products made through EAFs from scrap, and using renewable electricity, resulting in a footprint as low as 300kg of CO2 per tonne of finished steel.

XCarb stands for decarbonisation, or excluding carbon, Mittal revealed.

Natalia Capra France