“If the world is to achieve net zero by 2050, it will require all parts of the economy in all regions of the world to contribute. As the world’s leading steel company, we believe we have a responsibility to lead the efforts to decarbonize the steelmaking process, which today has a significant carbon footprint,” ArcelorMittal founder and chief executive Lakshmi Mittal said in a statement. 

“Steel will remain a vital material for our world and indeed is the most circular of all materials. Our challenge is to be able to make steel using clean energy technologies on a commercial scale, while remaining competitive in the global steel industry,” he said. 

ArcelorMittal said it has two potential paths to reach the goal. One, it said, is the hydrogen-DRI route. That route envisions renewably produced hydrogen being used as a reducing agent to make sponge iron. 

“In Hamburg, Germany, where we own and operate Europe’s only DRI-EAF facility, we will test not only the ability of hydrogen to reduce the iron ore and form DRI, but also then test that carbon-free DRI in the EAF in the actual steelmaking process,” the company said. 

The other route, which ArcelorMittal is calling the “Smart Carbon” route, is based on carbon capture use and storage technologies and on modifying equipment to use circular carbon, carbon in the form of sustainable biomass or carbon-containing waste streams. 

“While both routes have the potential to deliver carbon-neutral steel by 2050, we believe that Smart Carbon can deliver results sooner, and make a meaningful contribution to CO₂ emissions reduction this decade, while industrial-scale production from the hydrogen-DRI route is unlikely to be significant before 2030 due to the current high costs,” the company said.