ArcelorMittal's XCarb fund puts USD 30m in LanzaTech

ArcelorMittal SA (AMS:MT) is investing, through the XCarb innovation fund, USD 30 million (EUR 26.5m) in carbon recycling company LanzaTech, with which the Luxembourg-based steelmaker is already partnering in the Steelanol project in Belgium.

Launched this March, XCarb has recently invested in AI-enabled concentrated solar power firm Heliogen, in Form Energy – the developer of a low-cost iron-air battery storage technology, and in Breakthrough Energy’s Catalyst programme the aim of which is to scale the technologies that will make net-zero emissions possible by 2050.

ArcelorMittal’s relationship with LanzaTech began in 2015 when it first announced plans to use LanzaTech’s carbon capture and re-use technology in Ghent. At its plant there, the steelmaker is currently building the EUR-180-million Carbalyst facility, or the Steelanol project. With LanzaTech’s gas fermentation technology, the plant will capture carbon-rich waste gases from the steelmaking process to reduce ArcelorMittal Ghent’s carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2) emissions by 125,000 tonnes per year and produce 80 million litres of bio-ethanol.

LanzaTech is also developing technology to turn captured emissions into other chemical building blocks such as textiles, rubber, and packaging.

“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 decarbonise, but also in producing valuable products from our carbon bearing gases which can help the decarbonisation of other sectors,” said ArcelorMittal CEO Pinakin Chaubal.

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