ArcelorMittal invests $30 million in LanzaTech

ArcelorMittal on Dec. 9 announced it has made a US$30 million investment in carbon recycling company, LanzaTech through its XCarb innovation fund, the fourth investment the company has made through the fund since its launch in March 2021.

The investment further expands ArcelorMittal’s relationship with LanzaTech, which commenced in 2015 when the Company first announced plans to utilize LanzaTech’s carbon capture and re-use technology at its plant in Ghent, Belgium. The €180 million Carbalyst plant – ArcelorMittal’s flagship carbon capture and re-use technology project – is currently under construction, with commissioning expected before the end of 2022. Also known as the Steelanol project, funding has been obtained from various sources, including from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program and the European Investment Bank.

Using LanzaTech’s gas fermentation technology, which captures carbon-rich waste gases from the steelmaking process and converts them into sustainable fuels and chemicals, the plant will reduce ArcelorMittal Ghent’s CO2e emissions by 125,000 metric tons a year. It will also produce 80 million liters of bioethanol annually, which can be blended with traditional gasoline and used as a low-carbon alternative fuel for the transport sector.

LanzaTech is also developing technology to convert captured emissions into a range of other chemical building blocks to make useful materials, such as textiles, rubber, and packaging.

Commenting, Pinakin Chaubal, chief technology officer, ArcelorMittal said, “We have worked with LanzaTech for several years, know their leadership team well and understand the potential of their technology and the role it can play in not only helping us to decarbonize, but also in producing valuable products from our carbon bearing gases which can help the decarbonization of other sectors. Extending our relationship through this investment was therefore a natural next step and we are very pleased to now have an excellent CCU technology company within our XCarb innovation fund portfolio.”  

Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech added, “No longer can we simply extract more resources to make the things we need. ArcelorMittal has long been a champion of the circular economy and through their XCarb™ innovation fund they are helping create a new circular carbon economy. We are delighted to deepen our relationship with ArcelorMittal and look forward to this next chapter as we create a future where everything can be made from recycled carbon.”

Previous investments the company has made through its XCarb innovation fund include: US$10 million in Heliogen, a renewable energy technology company that focuses on “unlocking the power of sunlight to replace fossil fuels”; US$25 million in Form Energy, which is developing a breakthrough low-cost iron-air battery storage technology; and a commitment of US$100 million over five years in Breakthrough Energy’s Catalyst program, an initiative Bill Gates founded to scale the technologies the world needs to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.