Open / Close Advertisement

Thinking About Decarbonization, ArcelorMittal Reimagines the Blast Furnace

Speaking during a panel discussion Wednesday at the 2024 AIST European Steel Forum, Kristian Notebaert, chief technology officer decarbonization for ArcelorMittal’s European flat products business, said the company is conceptualizing what it is calling a “renaissance” blast furnace (BF), a furnace that would be enhanced with a variety of novel and carbon-mitigating features. 

Those features include top gas recycling, gas preheating and injection, biochar injection, and full O2 injection. 

As he explained, the company isn’t prepared to abandon blast furnace production on account of productivity. Some of the company’s products necessitate BF-basic oxygen furnace (BOF) quality, and some of its downstream equipment is configured for large heats. Some of its casters, he said, demand 450 tons of liquid metal each hour. 

The 2024 European Steel Forum is taking place in Essen, Germany.