The steel ArcelorMittal produces at its Saint Chély facility in the Lozère region of France, is heated to over 1,000°C to give it the magnetic properties it needs.

All this heat was traditionally lost as the steel cooled, but is now recovered by new installations designed and built by Schneider Electric which with a capacity of 4.8 MW. This is thanks to a 5.6 million Euro investment project led by Kyotherm Group and ArcelorMittal and supported by the French environment and energy management agency, ADEME, and the Occitanie region.

The recovered heat is valorised within the mill for its own industrial processes as well as heating its premises, substantially reducing its fossil fuel consumption. Any excess heat is transferred to the town’s district network, run by SCABE, a subsidiary of ENGIE Cofely, through a 1.2km network between the mill and energy firm’s boiler building. The heat then warms the local swimming pool, schools, hospital and homes. This energy redistribution offsets the equivalent of 1,150 homes’ energy consumption.

By recovering and reusing this heat, the mill saves 17GWh per year in energy consumption and cuts its CO2 emissions by over 4,000 tonnes a year. This is roughly comparable to taking 2,000 new cars off the roads.

The town of Saint Chély d’Apcher also benefits from this arrangement, which enables it to substitute the recovered heat for that which it used to top-up during peak winter consumption via oil and gas powered boilers. It also eliminates the need for biomass boilers in the summer.

Philipe Chapus, director at ArcelorMittal à Saint-Chély d’Apcher says, “This collaborative project reduces the mill’s carbon footprint. It also cuts our energy consumption by 10% and demonstrates ArcelorMittal’s commitment to making a positive contribution to the local community.”