EIB grants ArcelorMittal $81.8M loan for steelanol and bio-coal projects

In Luxembourg, the European Investment Bank (EIB), with the support of the European Commission, has granted a EUR75 million loan to ArcelorMittal for the construction of two ground-breaking projects at ArcelorMittal Ghent, Belgium, to considerably reduce carbon emissions by converting waste and by-products into valuable new products, helping to develop low-carbon steelmaking technologies, in line with the EU’s climate objectives.

Details of the projects include:

· Steelanol: a EUR165 million industrial-scale demonstration plant that will capture waste gases[iv] from the blast furnace and biologically convert them into recycled-carbon ethanol, the first commercial product of ArcelorMittal’s Carbalyst® family of recycled carbon chemicals. The ethanol produced can be blended for use as a liquid fuel. The technology was developed by LanzaTech, with whom ArcelorMittal has entered a long-term partnership, together with Primetals and E4tech.

Once complete, the plant is expected to produce up to 80 million liters of recycled-carbon ethanol a year. The new installation will create up to 500 construction jobs over the next two years and 20 to 30 new permanent direct jobs. The project is expected to be completed in 2022.

· Torero: a EUR50 million large-scale demonstration plant to convert waste wood into bio-coal, partially replacing the coal currently injected into the blast furnace.

In the early stage, the Torero plant will be able to convert up to 60,000 tons of waste wood into around 40,000 tons of bio-coal every year. This volume will be doubled in a second stage of the project, after the start of the first Torero reactor. The new installation will create around 70 external jobs and will create around ten new permanent direct jobs for the operation of this installation. The plant, which is being developed in partnership with Torr-Coal, Renewi, Joanneum Research Centre, Graz University and Chalmers Technical University, is expected to be operational by the end of 2022.