Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal has announced that its subsidiary ArcelorMittal Belgium has commissioned its €35 million Torero plant. The plant is the first of its kind in the European steel industry, converting waste wood into bio-coal to reduce fossil coal consumption.
The Torero plant will convert 88,000 mt of waste wood into an annual 37,500 mt of bio-coal. Bio-coal will be used in the blast furnace at Ghent steel plant, reducing the use of fossil coal in the blast furnace. Therefore, the project will reduce annual carbon emissions from the plant by 112,500 mt.
The use of bio-coal will result in the production of bio-gas, which will be captured and transformed into ethanol at the company’s carbon capture and utilization “Steelanol” project in Ghent. In November, ArcelorMittal Belgium begun the first industrial-scale production of ethanol at its Steelanol project, with an annual production capacity of 80 million liters of ethanol, as SteelOrbis previously reported.