One of the world's biggest steel-making firms, ArcelorMittal, has this week launched a sweeping new new package of initiatives aimed at driving down both its own carbon emissions and those of the industry more broadly.
The company debuted three new initiatives - green certificates, low-carbon steel production techniques, and a green innovation fund - which are gathered together under a new XCarb brand, which aims to spearhead the manufacturing giant's efforts to deliver on its 2050 net zero commitment.
The firm's new XCarb green steel certificates document carbon savings made through ArcelorMittal's efforts to reduce emissions from its blast furnaces. These encompass a range of initiatives, including a technique that transforms biomass into bio-coal to replace the use of coal in the blast furnace named Torero; an approach that captures carbon-rich blast furnace waste gas and converts it into bio-ethanol, dubbed Carbalyst; and methods that capture hydrogen-rich waste gases from the steelmaking process and inject them into the blast furnace to further reduce coal use.
The green certification scheme enables the resulting CO2 savings to be passed onto the firm's customers, enabling them to report reductions in their Scope 3 supply chain emissions in accordance with reporting standards such as the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.
Aside from innovations in the traditional blast furnace, ArcelorMittal is also offering some low-carbon steel products made using renewable electricity via its Electric Arc Furnace, which processes scrap steel using electrical power generated by clean energy, giving it a carbon footprint that can be as low as 300kg of CO2 per tonne of finished steel, according to the company.
The firm said it will have 600,000 tonnes of 'green steel' available by the end of 2022, with a customer offer of both flat and long products.
Finally, a third initiative launched under the XCarb label will see the firm launch a new innovation fund that will invest $100m annually in companies that are developing breakthrough technologies to accelerate the steel industry's transition to carbon neutral steelmaking. To be eligible for funding, companies will have to be developing technologies which support ArcelorMittal on its journey to decarbonise, the firm said.
"Climate change is an overwhelming societal priority. At ArcelorMittal, we have an important role to play in helping society deliver the objectives of the Paris Agreement and are determined to lead our industry's transition to carbon neutral steel," said Aditya Mittal, ArcelorMittal CEO.
"Our launch of XCarb today brings the full breadth of our decarbonisation activity together under a single umbrella brand. It aims to demonstrate to stakeholders the diverse range of initiatives we are undertaking in pursuit of our 2050 net zero goal while also providing our customers with solutions which help them address their own carbon reduction targets, demonstrating the important role steel has to play in a future, circular economy."
Steel is a key pillar of the global economy, one of the world's core construction materials, and present in many areas of our everyday lives. But it is also a huge contributor to climate change, responsible for around eight per cent of direct emissions from the global use of fossil fuels. As such efforts to decarbonise the steel industry are therefore among the essential activities needed to drive forward the net zero transition and have emerged as top priority for many of the sector's leading firms.