ArcelorMittal, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), BHP Group and Mitsubishi Development (MDP) have completed the first phase of a carbon capture trial at ArcelorMittal's integrated steelmaking site in Gent, Belgium, capturing more than 90% of the carbon dioxide contained in blast furnace gas at pilot scale.
The campaign involved over 4,500 hours of operational testing and applied MHI's Advanced KM CDR Process. According to the partners, the operating and engineering data collected is meant to support assessment of a possible full-scale installation on the Gent blast furnace. Based on the trial results, they estimate that applying the technology at full scale to pre-combustion blast furnace off-gas could lower CO2 intensity at the site by as much as 24%. Spreading capture across several emission points in the plant could, they say, support progress toward near-zero emissions intensity.
The test took place in what the partners describe as a demanding industrial setting: blast furnace off-gas carries dust, sulfur-containing compounds and other contaminants. MHI said its process ran under those conditions while generating data for future commercial-scale design. In this phase only CO2 was captured; the remaining carbon monoxide can still be used for power and heat generation elsewhere on site, with CO2 released when that gas is burned.
Phase 2 will extend the trial to additional emission points, starting with the hot strip mill reheating furnace. That furnace is fired with a blend of by-product gases — coke oven gas, blast furnace off-gas and basic oxygen furnace gas — together with natural gas, and its flue gas is post-combustion, giving a different and more dynamic profile. Results from the second phase are expected to feed updated engineering and deployment studies for full-scale applications.
Under the collaboration, ArcelorMittal is hosting the trial in Gent, MHI is supplying its proprietary capture process and leading process engineering and technical evaluation, and BHP and MDP — suppliers of steelmaking raw materials to ArcelorMittal's European operations — are providing funding.
Frederik Van De Velde, CEO of ArcelorMittal Belgium, said the partners set out to better understand how carbon capture could be built into existing steel plants, and called the first-stage outcome a source of important data for scaling up the technologies needed to decarbonize. He added that he looked forward to the first results from the hot strip mill reheating furnace.
Tatsuto Nagayasu, senior vice president and head of CCUS at MHI, described the completed campaign as a milestone for applying the company's capture technology in steelmaking, citing operation under dusty and sulfur-bearing conditions and the data generated for future commercial-scale design.
Dr. Ben Ellis, vice president of marketing sustainability at BHP, said the results indicate abatement potential in the blast furnace and integrated steelmaking route. He noted that roughly 70% of global steel output today comes from blast furnace steelmaking and that the route is expected to remain a key process for decades, making work on reducing its emissions critical alongside alternate steelmaking pathways.
Tadashi Mizuno, managing director and CEO of MDP, said the phase 1 results strengthened confidence that carbon capture on blast furnace gas could be a viable emissions-reduction pathway, while energy efficiency and high-quality raw materials would keep mattering in the near to medium term and CCUS could contribute over the longer term.