Carbon capture trial clears 4,500-hour milestone at Gent steelworks

More than 4,500 hours of continuous testing at ArcelorMittal’s Gent integrated steelworks in Belgium produced CO2 capture rates above 90% from pre-combustion blast furnace off-gas, completing Phase 1 of a solvent-based carbon capture trial.

By Elena Vasquez

The multi-company consortium — ArcelorMittal, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), BHP and Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd (MDP) — tested whether MHI’s solvent-based capture hardware could operate reliably within traditional blast furnace steelmaking infrastructure. That production route accounts for roughly 70% of global primary steel output.

The completed work is a pilot, not commissioned commercial capture capacity. Full-scale application at Gent remains one potential outcome of the trial.

What did the Gent pilot demonstrate?

Pre-combustion blast furnace off-gas contains high dust loads, sulfur-containing compounds and other industrial impurities. The consortium selected it to test the technical feasibility and operational stability of capture equipment within a challenging industrial gas stream.

Over more than 4,500 hours of continuous pilot operations, MHI’s proprietary Advanced KM CDR Process™ consistently achieved CO2 capture efficiencies above 90%. The operating period equates to about 188 consecutive days, giving the trial a sustained test rather than a short run.

The process separated CO2 while leaving unreacted carbon monoxide (CO) available for site-wide process heating and power generation. For an integrated plant, that means removing carbon dioxide without stripping out the remaining gas that operators already use for energy.

Engineering evaluations derived from the operational baseline estimate that applying MHI’s technology at full commercial scale to Gent’s blast furnace off-gas could reduce the site’s total carbon emissions intensity by up to 24%. The estimate concerns a future full-scale system; Phase 1 did not achieve that reduction in commercial equipment.

Tatsuto Nagayasu, MHI’s Senior Vice President and Head of CCUS, said: “Completing more than 4,500 hours of operation and demonstrating CO2 capture rates exceeding 90% from blast furnace gas represent an important milestone for the application of MHI’s carbon capture technology in the steel industry.”

How does Phase 2 change the test?

The partners have initiated Phase 2, shifting the demonstration from pre-combustion capture to post-combustion capture at additional process emission points. The next test will treat flue gas from Gent’s hot strip mill reheating furnace.

The reheating furnace burns a variable blend of byproduct gases — coke oven, blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace gases — combined with natural gas. Phase 2 will expose the capture technology to those dynamic flue-gas profiles.

The campaign will generate updated engineering, cost and design data required for potential commercial-scale deployment across multiple point sources within an integrated steelworks. For the partners, that means testing whether the technology can remain stable as gas composition changes while producing the inputs needed for a larger project.

What will decide whether Gent scales up?

Phase 1 gives Gent a credible pilot case for applying capture to blast furnace off-gas: more than 4,500 operating hours, capture above 90%, and a full-scale engineering estimate of up to 24% lower sitewide emissions intensity. It does not add full-scale carbon capture capacity to the plant.

Phase 2 broadens the commercial question. It moves the test to a reheating furnace fed by a changing mix of byproduct gases and natural gas, then asks whether the resulting engineering and cost data support deployment at multiple emission points.

The decisive next milestone is Phase 2’s engineering, cost and design package: it will determine whether the consortium can proceed from a successful pilot to a commercial, multi-point capture project at Gent.