A multi-company consortium consisting of ArcelorMittal, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), BHP, and Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd (MDP) has completed Phase 1 of an advanced carbon capture demonstration at ArcelorMittal’s integrated steel plant in Gent, Belgium.

The primary objective of the trial is to evaluate the technical feasibility and operational stability of deploying solvent-based carbon capture hardware within traditional blast furnace steelmaking infrastructure, a sector accounting for roughly 70% of global primary steel output.

The initial phase focused on treating pre-combustion blast furnace off-gas – a challenging gas stream containing high dust loads, sulfur-containing compounds, and other industrial impurities. Over 4,500 hours of continuous pilot operations, MHI’s proprietary Advanced KM CDR Process™ consistently achieved CO2 capture efficiencies exceeding 90%.

Engineering evaluations derived from the operational baseline indicate that applying MHI’s capture technology at full commercial scale to the Gent plant’s blast furnace off-gas could reduce the site’s total carbon emissions intensity by up to 24%.

During Phase 1, the system specifically targeted the separation of CO2, leaving unreacted carbon monoxide (CO) available for site-wide process heating and power generation.

The project partners have initiated Phase 2 of the demonstration campaign to test post-combustion capture across additional process emission points. 

This phase will focus on treating flue gas from the hot strip mill reheating furnace, which burns a variable blend of byproduct gases (coke oven, blast furnace, and basic oxygen furnace gases) combined with natural gas.

Phase 2 will evaluate the capture technology under dynamic flue-gas profiles to generate updated engineering, cost, and design data required for potential commercial-scale deployment across multiple point sources within an integrated steelworks.

Source link