Product stewardship and R&D
More effective processes today, new technologies tomorrow
We're putting our industry-leading Research and Development expertise behind the drive for more sustainable construction and manufacturing, both now and in the future.
For example, we're developing new forms of high-strength lightweight steel that can reduce car weight by 20-30 percent, which means they use less fuel and emit less CO2 without comprising the safety of the passengers. Lightweight steels are also sustainable solutions in the construction market: for example, they enable larger spans for bridges and provide high mechanical resistance performances while requiring fewer raw materials for their construction. In another field, new steel surfaces have been developed to prevent the use of solvents for our customers. All our new products are now developed with energy and resource efficiency in mind.
Managing our product life cycle
ArcelorMittal is the largest recycler of scrap steel in the world, and we work with local and national governments to promote it further. Every year more than 25 million tonnes of our products are recovered and recycled, which saves around 36 million tonnes of CO2.
There is also a dedicated team to evaluate our processes and products using Life Cycle Assessment methodology. This analyses every stage in the life of a piece of steel from mining and coating, to use, and finally recycling and disposal.
Production
This is a particularly energy-intensive phase, which is why it's key to our efforts to address climate change. More efficient use of gas and furnaces is especially important here, but we're also working to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide and volatile organic compounds from our coke ovens, sintering plants and coating lines.
For example, in January 2008 we launched a new industrial prototype for a vacuum plasma coating line at our plant in Liège, Belgium. The technology has been developed in partnership with the local Walloon government, and will make flat steel less prone to corrosion, and suitable for a wider range of uses, including anti-bacterial and self-cleaning surfaces. The process uses no solvents or chemicals, and produces no effluents or harmful gases.
Use
We also try to help our customers improve their own environmental performance by developing new uses for steel. We're working on using advanced steel in electrical engines and rail transport, which will help reduce CO2 emissions, and have a growing presence in wind turbines, greener construction materials, more fuel-efficient cars, and solar panels.
The 'Arsolar' solar roof panels developed by our construction division won the 2007 Golden Innovation award at Batimat, one of the world's most important building and construction events. Likewise our plant in Gijón, Spain, supplied over 200,000 tonnes of steel plate for wind generators in 2007, and our Belgian plant in Gent is exploring ways to install wind turbines on towers over 100 metres high.
Recycling
Scrap steel has been extensively recycled for at least a hundred years. Here are just a few fast facts about this endlessly flexible and re-useable material:
- Nearly 95 percent of the steel used in car manufacturing is recycled.
- 66 percent of steel packaging in Europe is recycled, which is the equivalent to 2.5 million tonnes of food and drinks cans in 2006 alone. The result is a saving of 4.7 million tonnes of CO2, which is the same as taking two million cars off the road.
- Across the world the recycling of steel saves about 600 million tonnes of CO2 every year.
- The World Steel Association estimates that over 65 percent of steel packaging is recycled.
ArcelorMittal is the biggest recycler of scrap steel in the world, and we work with local and national governments to promote it further. Every year more than 25 million tonnes of our products are recovered and recycled, which saves around 36 million tonnes of CO2.
Looking to the future
We're proud to be one of the leading players in the European Union sponsored 'Ultra-Low CO2 Steel-making' project, or ULCOS. We're working with a consortium of 48 other companies across Europe to reduce the carbon produced by steel making by 30-70 percent by the year 2050.
Four possible routes have been selected to achieve this, and they will now be tested on an industrial scale until 2012. Most will require carbon capture and storage technology. We're already seeing promising results from a 'top gas recycling' project at an experimental blast furnace in Sweden. This reduces the amount of coke needed in the furnace, and uses oxygen to remove unwanted nitrogen, which makes carbon capture easier.
We're doing similar work with the American Iron and Steel Institute in the USA and with the World Steel Association across the world.
We're also working independently on a number of sustainable new products and processes, from more efficient processes in our own plants, to the production of new electrical steels that drastically reduce energy loss, and could have a significant impact on the car industry.
We've already developed a new industrial gas cylinder that is half the weight of a traditional one, and in the next three years we'll be working on next generation steels that could reduce the weight of an average car by a further 20 percent.
In the long term we may find answers to climate change in some of the breakthrough technologies we're already exploring, in partnership with some of the world's leading universities. The possibilities range from nano-materials (substances with extremely small particles), bio-mimetic materials (manmade substances that mimic natural ones), and meso architecture.
The ArcelorMittal Scientific Council
This council is a new independent external body which advises our Research and Development management. The subjects cover science, innovation and opportunities for competitive advantage. The eight members of the council have been chosen for the quality and breadth of their academic experience, and the aim is to use that expertise to help us gain and maintain a leadership position in our industry.
The first quarterly meeting took place in January 2008, and a larger meeting with ArcelorMittal's Group Management Board once a year.