Carbon Capture & Usage
Steelanol is transforming blast furnace gas to ethanol
The Steelanol plant captures carbon-rich industrial gases from steel production at ArcelorMittal Ghent, and biologically converts them into ethanol using LanzaTech's carbon biorecycling process. LanzaTech’s technology works like a brewery, but instead of yeast consuming sugar, proprietary bacteria known as a biocatalyst consume carbon gas and convert it into ethanol.
The ethanol produced in Ghent can be used as a building block for a variety of products, including sustainable transport fuels, packaging materials, clothing and even cosmetic perfumes, contributing to efforts to decarbonise the chemical sector worldwide.
The plant has the capacity to produce 80 million liters of advanced ethanol, almost half of the total current advanced ethanol demand for fuel mixing in Belgium. It has the potential to reduce annual carbon emissions from the Ghent plant by 125,000 tonnes.
ArcelorMittal has worked with its partners LanzaTech, Primetals Technologies and E4Tech throughout the project. ArcelorMittal has also obtained funding from various sources, including the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme and the European Investment Bank, to carry out further research and development and scale up the project. The Flemish government also gave strategic environmental support via VLAIO, the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Enterprise.