Steel group ArcelorMittal said Feb. 11 it expects to supply 600,000 mt of steel by 2022 sold including carbon reduction certificates, after the first of such sales was concluded in December.
ArcelorMittal, which targets a 30% CO2 reduction by 2030 in Europe, is offering flat steel products in Europe using carbon savings certificates audited by DNV-GL. The group in Europe sold 32.9 million mt of steel in 2020, 22% lower than in 2019. The company noted rising demand from customers for low-carbon steel in order to reduce indirect, Scope 3 emissions from materials, in its quarterly presentation.
“Customers increasingly understand that they need to reduce their company-level Scope 3 emissions coming from purchased materials, and many are asking for tonnes of low-carbon steel today.,” the presentation said.
Steel buyers can use the certificates to report an equivalent reduction in Scope 3 emissions, in accordance with the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, it said.
DNV-GL verifies CO2 savings in total as a direct result of the decarbonization projects being implemented across a number of the group’s European sites, it said.
ArcelorMittal is increasing its focus on a transition to low-emissions steelmaking as part of its 2050 net-zero carbon emissions goal.
“2020 was a year in which we saw further acceleration in the drive to decarbonize the global economy,” Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal’s executive chairman, said in a report. “We have identified two main routes to achieve net zero target by 2050, both leveraging one or more clean energy infrastructures — one that utilizes biomass/bioenergy with carbon capture utilization and storage and the other which harnesses green electricity to power a hydrogen-based direct reduced iron process.”
The group will continue to trial and pilot both routes while simultaneously promoting policies “that are a crucial component of success if these technologies are to be scaled up and commercially viable in the long term.”
The group is commissioning its first “Smart Carbon” steelmaking technologies at its Ghent blast furnace-based works next year, through the “Carbalyst” project, and expects to bring its Hamburg hydrogen direct reduction iron (DRI) project into production between 2023-2025, it said. ArcelorMittal already has a DRI plant in Hamburg running on natural gas and is developing a hydrogen pilot DRI plant with US-based technology supplier Midrex. Carbalyst is the company’s initiative to capture carbon-intensive gases from pig iron production and recycle into chemical with partner Lanzatech.
— Hector Forster
