Presented in association with the  Centre for Automotive Research  the Enlighten Awards recognize global initiatives that reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption and leverage material reuse and recycling efforts.  

“Altair Enlighten award is widely recognized in the automotive industry as a prestigious award for the best innovations influencing the future. ArcelorMittal was the winner of the 2023 award in the Sustainable Process category for the use of biomass for carbon neutral steelmaking,” said Bala Krishnan, who is the Director of Automotive Product Applications and Energy & Emerging Customers at ArcelorMittal Global R&D. 

"There was no other steel company that won this award this year, demonstrating we are world leaders on technology positively influencing the transformation underway in the automotive industry,” says Krishnan. 

Two processes were highlighted in the award for 2023. The ArcelorMittal Port-Cartier pellet plant became the first in the world to substitute pyrolytic oil (wood-based) for heavy fuel oil on a continuous basis.  

“Replacing part of the heavy fuel oil we use in Port-Cartier with pyrolytic oil is the first step of our energy transition and we are continuing our efforts to go even further in decarbonizing our operations. By using this biofuel, produced locally from residual biomass, we are reducing our emissions while building a true regional energy ecosystem and the results obtained so far confirm that this strategy shows great promise. Above all, these efforts combined will ensure our Port-Cartier pellet plant is getting established as an international reference,” Ordioni said. 

And in Ghent, Belgium, the Torero project will use waste wood to produce 40,000 tonnes of bio coal annually, which can be used in the blast furnace as a substitute for fossil coal. Torero works alongside ArcelorMittal’s flagship carbon capture and reuse project, ‘Steelanol,’ which captures carbon-rich waste gases from the blast furnace and biologically converts them into advanced ethanol, used as a feedstock for a variety of chemical products. 

The above achievements will be instrumental in meeting ArcelorMittal’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050. These could also be a part of our global XCarb® offer. 

This award highlights the teamwork and entrepreneurial spirit At ArcelorMittal. Teams from Global R&D, CTO, commercial auto and many others worked on the products and processes that led to this important recognition.

“As the world’s leading steel company, we are aware of the responsibility we have to lead our industry’s efforts to combat climate change and are therefore committed to developing an industry-leading suite of decarbonization technologies. The bio-energy projects for which we have been recognized are part of a much wider portfolio of technologies under development, including green hydrogen, carbon capture and re-use or storage and direct electrolysis technologies. We believe all will be needed if our industry is to reach net zero, which is why we intend to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to test, implement and scale the tech that can make that a reality.” 

In 2022, ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada was awarded a Runner Up award in the Sustainable process category for the First Industrial Large-Scale Hydrogen Direct Reduced Iron Test (H2 DRI Test) at its DRI plant in Quebec, with the technology support from Global R&D. 

And in 2021, our Global R&D teams, East Chicago and APA Centres were instrumental in winning the Altair Enlighten award in the Lightweighting Enabling Technology category, for GI Fortiform® 980. This 3rd Generation Advanced High Strength Steel offers high ductility of DP600 for complex shapes at the higher strength level of 980 MPa, significant weight savings potential of up to 20%, and improved resistance of Liquid Metal Embrittlement (LME). This was industrialized at AM/NS Calvert in Alabama.