Environmental impacts

Join Steligence® for this free English-language webinar on Wednesday 7 July 2021 at 13.00 CEST.

Topic: HyPer grades - galvanised high strength steels for structural engineering

Scope: Europe

Presenter: Jérôme Guth, Metallic coated steels segment Leader at ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products

Cold formed steel profiles are important components for buildings’ structural applications. They are commonly used to design primary or secondary structures to support floors, roofs, and facade elements in the form of purlins, rails, and decking. They distribute the various loads from the building envelope to the main frame and the foundations.

They are also used in other structural applications such as silos and tanks, conventional or high-bay racks, and solar mounting systems.

During this webinar, the range of metallic coated high strength steels for these applications - available in two standard families: construction grades and high strength low alloy (HSLA) grades - will be presented and their specific properties explained.

Particular attention will be paid to how the range of HyPer grade steels for construction is fulfilling the material requirements of the Eurocode 3 design and material rules to enable building owners to construct safe and cost-effective buildings. Indeed, even at a slightly higher costs, these grades allow a more effective structure to be designed in addition to saving weight and cutting the overall cost of your projects.

Last but not least, reducing weight and material quantities with high strength steel is a strong and immediate lever to reduce the environmental footprint of steel solutions.

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ArcelorMittal Belgium officially inaugurated its blast furnace B in Ghent in March 2021 following a significant investment to renew the furnace. The result is one of the world’s most modern and efficient blast furnaces both in terms of productivity and CO2 emissions.

Steelmaking at the heart of the circular economy

The new blast furnace, which was given an optimal shape, was completely relined and is equipped with state-of-the-art automation systems. This investment will further enable steelmaking to be at the heart of the circular economy and help the company lower CO2 emissions and achieve its climate objectives through more efficient fuel consumption, the recycling of wood waste, and the injection of waste gases as well as end-of-life plastics.

State-of-the-art technology

As part of the project, the design of the renewed blast furnace was optimised to make the blast furnace process more efficient with expert teams from ArcelorMittal’s R&D centres in Spain and France working closely with ArcelorMittal Gent. Thanks to the relining, blast furnace B is now one of the most advanced blast furnaces worldwide with unrivalled productivity. The site’s Industrial IT, Automation, and Model department led the automation aspect of the project, switching to a new PLC platform with a modern user interface and extensive diagnostic facilities (on the basis of the measurement of temperature, pressure, etc.). Safety aspects were also thoroughly revised and enhanced. In addition, a new network infrastructure was put in place, the processing computer software was adapted, and the models were optimised for controlling the new blast furnace. Around 5000 tons of steel and 3000 tons of refractory material were used for the blast furnace relining and 265 kilometres of electric cables were drawn.

A circular vision of the future

The relining of the blast furnace will play a significant role in reducing the site’s CO2 emissions and achieving its climate objectives through, for example, more efficient fuel consumption. In addition, ArcelorMittal Belgium is committed to contributing to the EU’s ambitious climate objectives in the framework of The Green Deal. The Ghent relining project will contribute to ArcelorMittal Europe’s commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 compared with 2018. As a group, ArcelorMittal has an ambition to be climate neutral by 2050. These actions are also fully in line with the ArcelorMittal Group’s climate strategy as described in the Climate Action Report.

In the blast furnaces, ArcelorMittal Gent plans to replace fossil carbon with green and circular carbon and green and circular hydrogen. ‘Fresh’ raw materials will increasingly be replaced with waste products in an environmentally and economically feasible way. The Torero project, which will be commissioned in 2022, will allow for the pre-treating of waste wood from container parks to produce biocarbon suitable for the blast furnace process. There are also two projects running with plastic waste that could be injected into the blast furnaces in the form of powder or gas. The possibility of replacing fossil carbon with hydrogen is also being explored.

Text:
ArcelorMittal in Belgium
Constructalia

Images:
ArcelorMittal in Belgium

ArcelorMittal is planning to build a large-scale industrial plant for the direct reduction of iron ore (DRI) and electric arc furnace (EAF)-based steelmaking at its site in Bremen, as well as an innovative DRI pilot plant in addition to an EAF in Eisenhüttenstadt, following the announcement of the planned expansion of Germany’s hydrogen infrastructure.

Green hydrogen

Using green hydrogen, up to 3.5 million tonnes of steel could be produced by the Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt sites by 2030 with significantly lower CO2 emissions. Depending on the amount of hydrogen available, CO2 savings of more than 5 million tonnes could be possible. The technology conversion requires investments in the range of 1 to 1.5 billion euro.

"With our concept for the transformation of the plants in Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt, we are accelerating the implementation of carbon neutral steel production. These projects have the potential to have a significant impact in reducing CO2 emissions in line with the European Union’s climate commitments. We are now asking for the necessary support and access to funding to make the implementation of our plans happen," said Reiner Blaschek, CEO of ArcelorMittal Flachstahl Deutschland.

In Germany, the group already operates Europe’s only DRI-EAF plant in Hamburg, where the switch to using hydrogen instead of natural gas in the iron ore reduction process is being prepared. The objective is to reach industrial commercial maturity of the technology by 2025, initially producing 100 000 tonnes of sponge iron a year.

Project implementation

To implement the projects, ArcelorMittal is planning to gradually adapt production in Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt in order to be able to competitively manufacture carbon neutral, high-quality steel using hydrogen in the iron ore reduction process.

In 2021, two blast furnaces – one in Bremen and one in Eisenhüttenstadt – will be converted to inject natural gas, reducing the use of coal in the iron ore reduction process and thereby further reducing CO2 emissions.

As a next step, innovative DRI-EAF plants are to be set up at both locations. In Bremen, ArcelorMittal initially plans to use natural gas for the DRI and later hydrogen from electrolysis. The hydrogen is to be made available as part of the regional North German Clean Hydrogen Coastline network. The sponge iron produced in the Bremen DRI unit will initially supply the steelworks in Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt until the regional hydrogen cluster in East Brandenburg can also supply the Eisenhüttenstadt site with sufficient hydrogen. In the transition phase, the additional hydrogen required in Eisenhüttenstadt will be generated from natural gas with the help of a pyrolysis plant that will be built on the steel plant’s premises. To secure the future supply of hydrogen, both sites are to be integrated into the European hydrogen network in the long term via the regional hydrogen networks.

ArcelorMittal goals

ArcelorMittal has set itself the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2030 in Europe and producing carbon neutral steel by 2050. To this end, ArcelorMittal is pioneering two breakthrough carbon neutral technology routes, Smart Carbon and an innovative DRI-based route.

Text:
ArcelorMittal
Constructalia

Image:
ArcelorMittal

Driving the responsible production and sourcing of steel, ResponsibleSteel™ is the steel industry’s first global multi-stakeholder standard and certification initiative. ArcelorMittal has played a pivotal role in establishing this standard since 2015, and this pertinent work continues.

What is ResponsibleSteel™?

ResponsibleSteel™ is a not-for-profit organisation developing sustainability performance standards and an independent third-party certification programme for the steel value chain. At its heart, it is a multi-stakeholder collaboration between business and civil society. This ground-breaking initiative now involves over 70 members and associates, made up of companies and civil society organisations from around the world.

Alan Knight, Head of Sustainable Development at ArcelorMittal, notes: “Responsible production techniques and high ethical and business standards are becoming increasingly important to our customers, and ultimately to their customers and consumers. We want to get to a point where steel users and purchasers have total confidence in their choices.”

Our approach

We know the importance of creating a standard to ensure that steel industry customers – and thereby consumers – can be confident that the steel they use has been sourced and produced responsibly at every stage.

By creating a multi-stakeholder forum to build trust and achieve consensus, ResponsibleSteel™ aims to enhance the responsible sourcing, production, use, and recycling of steel through the development of standards, certification, and related tools.

In November 2019, ResponsibleSteel™ published a performance standard for steel making sites, and in 2020 we considered how it handles raw materials and other supply chain issues. Members using the standard will be able to gain competitive advantage by using the standards to inform customers of the credibility and rigour that has gone into auditing their social and environmental performance.

The ResponsibleSteel™ performance standard – with 12 environmental, social, and governance principles - was published in November 2019.

ArcelorMittal has been a driving force in the creation of ResponsibleSteel™ and is represented on the Board of Directors. In developing the ResponsibleSteel™ standard, ArcelorMittal has been working with other steel companies such as Blue Scope, Voestalpine, and Aperam, together with a range of stakeholders across the steel value chain: Anglo American; automotive makers Daimler and BMW; civil society organisations Mighty Earth, IUCN, and the Climate Group; the bank HSBC, and the global union IndustriAll.

Having run pilot audits across key sites in 2018 and 2019 whilst the standard was in development, ArcelorMittal began the process of certifying various sites across the group in 2020, including the ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products division.

The ResponsibleSteel™ principles

Principle 1. Corporate Leadership
Principle 2. Social, Environmental, and Governance Management Systems
Principle 3. Occupational and Community Health and Safety
Principle 4. Labour Rights
Principle 5. Human Rights
Principle 6. Local Communities
Principle 7. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
Principle 8. Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Principle 9. Noise, Emissions, Effluents, and Waste
Principle 10. Water Stewardship
Principle 11. Biodiversity
Principle 12. Decommissioning and Closure

Text:
ArcelorMittal Luxembourg
Constructalia

Images:
ResponsibleSteel™