A pilot carbon capture trial at ArcelorMittal's integrated steelmaking site in Gent, Belgium, has captured more than 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from blast furnace gas, completing the first phase of a collaboration between ArcelorMittal, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), BHP and Mitsubishi Development (MDP). The trial applied MHI's Advanced KM CDR Process and covered more than 4,500 hours of operational testing.
The partners said the pilot demonstrated capture at pilot scale at rates exceeding 90% and produced the operational and engineering data needed to assess a potential full-scale application at the Gent blast furnace. Assessments based on the trial results indicate that applying the technology at full scale to pre-combustion blast furnace off-gas could reduce CO2 intensity at the Gent site by up to 24%. If the approach were extended across multiple emission points at the plant, it could support progress toward near-zero emissions intensity, the partners said.
Operating on challenging off-gas
The blast furnace test was designed to show technical feasibility in an industrial environment where unburnt process gas, known as off-gas, carries dust, sulfur-containing compounds and other contaminants. MHI said the campaign demonstrated that the Advanced KM CDR Process could operate under those conditions while generating data to support assessment for future commercial-scale design.
Blast furnace off-gas contains significant concentrations of both CO2 and carbon monoxide (CO). In this first phase only CO2 was captured; the remaining carbon content, in the form of CO, can be used for power and heat generation elsewhere on site, with CO2 released upon combustion.
Scope of the second phase
The second phase aims to broaden the application of carbon capture across multiple emission points in the steelmaking process. It includes testing the technology on gases from the hot strip mill reheating furnace, which is fired with gas and heats thick steel slabs to the temperature required for rolling into thin sheets. That furnace uses a blend of by-product gases from steelmaking, including coke oven gas, blast furnace off-gas and basic oxygen furnace gas, together with natural gas, giving another capture point within integrated operations.
Phase 2 will assess the performance of MHI's technology under a different and more dynamic flue-gas profile, adding data on how capture can be integrated across multiple emission points or processes. The results are expected to inform updated engineering and deployment studies for future full-scale applications.
Roles in the collaboration
- ArcelorMittal is facilitating the trial at its Gent site.
- MHI is providing its proprietary Advanced KM CDR Process and leading carbon capture process engineering and technical evaluation.
- BHP and MDP, as key suppliers of steelmaking raw materials to ArcelorMittal's European operations, are funding the trial.
Frederik Van De Velde, CEO of ArcelorMittal Belgium, said the partners set out to better understand how carbon capture can be incorporated into existing steel plants, and that scaling up the technologies needed to decarbonize is the vital next step. He thanked the partners and the ArcelorMittal employees involved and said he looked forward to the first results from using carbon capture in the hot strip mill reheating furnace.
Tatsuto Nagayasu, senior vice president and head of CCUS at MHI, described more than 4,500 hours of operation and capture rates above 90% from blast furnace gas as an important milestone for applying the company's technology in the steel industry. He said the next phase at the hot strip mill would further strengthen understanding of integrating carbon capture across multiple emission sources at an operating steelworks.
Dr. Ben Ellis, vice president of marketing sustainability at BHP, said the results are promising and demonstrate the abatement potential of the blast furnace and integrated steelmaking route. He noted that around 70% of global steel production comes from blast furnace steelmaking today and that the route is expected to remain a key process for decades, making it critical to cut emissions from it while developing alternate steelmaking pathways.
Tadashi Mizuno, managing director and CEO of MDP, said the positive phase 1 results strengthened confidence that carbon capture applied to blast furnace gas could provide a viable pathway for reducing emissions from the steel sector, alongside energy efficiency improvements and the use of high-quality raw materials.