LanzaTech, Primetals Technologies renew agreement to advance industry transition to green steel

London-based Primetals Technologies Ltd. and Chicago-based carbon capture and utilization company LanzaTech Global Inc. have announced the signing of a renewed 10-year cooperation agreement designed to accelerate the deployment of integrated environmental solutions for the global steel industry.

Primetals says it builds on more than 60 years of innovation in metals production and leverages the combined portfolio of predecessors Mitsubishi-Hitachi Metals Machinery and Siemens VAI, founded in 1938. Today, Primetals says it represents one of the longest-standing global suppliers bringing new technology to the steel sector.

LanzaTech says its commercialized carbon recycling platform takes emissions from heavy industry, including from the steel industry, and transforms them into the building blocks to make fuels and chemicals.

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The companies say the renewed commitment cements a shared strategy for advancing the metallurgy industry’s green transition: Primetals’ focus on delivering multiple solutions for green steel combined with LanzaTech’s carbon capture and utilization (CC) technology. Under the previous agreement, the companies worked together on process integration and optimization of transforming steel emissions into commodity chemicals. Through the new 10-year agreement, Primetals and LanzaTech will enable more projects in the global iron and steel sector to adopt LanzaTech’s carbon recycling technologies.

“There is no single pathway for the steel industry to reduce its emissions, but a range of solutions can play a significant part in meeting national, regional and even corporate net-zero goals,” LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren says. “We are delighted to offer a solution at commercial scale today and to be working alongside a sector leader like Primetals Technologies to bring our technology to more industrial players around the world.”

Primetals Senior Vice President and Head of Green Steel Alexander Fleischanderl says the steel sector’s goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 depends upon breakthrough CCU technologies as they evolve. “Even as steel mills transition to new production methods, LanzaTech’s approach can utilize a variety of gas streams without any noticeable alterations to equipment or technology,” he says. “If a steel plant decides to move on from today’s more carbon-intensive method of production to newer processes, LanzaTech’s technology will still integrate with the resulting new gas streams. This flexibility is tremendously exciting for the future of the industry.”

The companies have collaborated with Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to deploy LanzaTech’s technology at ArcelorMittal’s flagship mill in Ghent, Belgium, with support from CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency). The ArcelorMittal Steelanol project will convert the emissions from steel manufacturing into advanced ethanol that can be used to make sustainable fuels and other downstream products.

Inaugurated in December 2022, this facility began operations in May of this year, and the first samples produced were shown at a joint LanzaTech-Primetals event at METEC, the largest metallurgical trade fair in Dusseldorf, earlier this month. Once the Steelanol facility reaches full commercial-scale operations, it will have the capacity to reduce carbon emissions by 125,000 tons and produce 80 million liters of advanced ethanol annually, the companies say.

Funding for the Steelanol facility was obtained from various sources, including the Flemish and Belgian governments and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 656437. Part of the funding also was secured with a loan from the European Investment Bank.