ArcelorMittal Belgium has commissioned its Torero plant, which converts waste wood into bio-coal for use in the blast furnace at its Gent steelmaking site. The first bio-coal made in the Torero plant, through a process known as torrefaction, was successfully used in a blast furnace in Gent, on Monday 18 December. The project will reduce annual carbon emissions from the plant by 112,500 tonnes, by reducing the use of fossil coal in the blast furnace. The Torero industrial-scale demonstration plant will convert 88,000 tonnes of waste wood into 37,500 tonnes of bio-coal annually.
The use of bio-coal in the blast furnace process will result in the production of bio-gas, which will be captured and transformed into ethanol by ArcelorMittal Gent’s Steelanol facility, Europe’s first carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) project. Industrial production of ethanol began at the Steelanol plant last month, a significant step in the journey to the full commissioning of the facility. The ethanol can then be used as a building block to produce a variety of chemical products including transport fuels, paints, plastics, clothing and even cosmetic perfume, hence helping to support the decarbonisation efforts of the chemical sector.