Waste-to-biofuel technology to improve carbon profile of Ghent steelmill

Major steelmaker AcelorMittal has joined forces with carbon recycling specialist LanzaTech and announced plans to build Europe’s first commercial-scale plant to convert waste gases from steelmaking into bioethanol. The plant will be sited at AcelorMital’s steelworks in Ghent, Belgium, will produce 47,000tpa of ethanol when at full capacity and is slated for start-up in mid-2017.

Most of the waste gas from steelmaking is carbon monoxide, and emissions comprise about half of the carbon put into the process. Currently, this waste gas is flared off, or at best burned to provide heat and power in the steel mill; but both result in CO₂ emissions. LanzaTech, a company spun-out from the University of Aukland in 2005, has developed a process using a proprietory strain of a microbe called Clostridium autoethanogenum to digest the monoxide and convert it into ethanol. An ancient form of life that predates cyanobacteria or algae, the microbe evolved in the vicinity of deep-ocean hydrothermal vents and uses only gases to derive energy. LanzaTech operates pre-commercial plants at steelmills in Beijing and Shanghai, both with 300tpa capacity, as well as smaller plants in the US, Taiwan and New Zealand.