ArcelorMittal has announced that with the instillation of its new Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) and Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) installations in Gijón, the company will reduce carbon emissions by roughly 50%.

The company has gone on to claim that the installation will result in the ArcelorMittal Sestao steel plant being the world’s first full-scale zero carbon emissions plant.

The established company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Spanish Government last week to confirm their commitments towards a decarbonised industry. The MoU underlined the commitment of both the Government of Spain and ArcelorMittal to invest around €1 billion in decarbonisation technologies. They company aims to reduce emissions at the site by up to 4.8Mt – or by 50% – within the next five years.

Lakshmi Mittal, CEO, ArcelorMittal Group, commented on the claims of the Zero carbon plant,

“It is widely understood that for the world to achieve net-zero by 2050, faster progress over the next decade is essential. The MoU we have signed today will play an important role in doing exactly that. The construction of the new green hydrogen DRI plant in Gijón will not only enable us to reduce emissions from our Spanish operations by half but will also result in the world’s first full-scale zero carbon-emissions steel plant in Sestao.”

Lakshmi Mittal, CEO, ArcelorMittal Group

At the centre of the plan is a 2.3Mt green hydrogen DRI unit, complemented by a 1.1Mt hybrid EAF. This begins the transition away from blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace steelmaking to DRI-EAF production, which has a far lower carbon footprint. The initiative involves the construction of multiple large-scale solar farms, with hydrogen produced in situ and with the corresponding impact in terms of employment.

The Gijón DRI will also feed the company’s Sestao plant, situated approximately 250km from Gijón, where production is already entirely from the electric arc furnace route.

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https://flateurope.arcelormittal.com/flatnews/news_july_2021/sestao-zero-carbon-emissions