SUSTAINABILITY - The Dutch company Perpetual Next makes biocoal and will
eventually supply 350,000 tonnes annually to ArcelorMittal.
In the Belgian city of Ghent, steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal is
switching part of its coal used for steel production to biocoal. This is an
alternative to coal that is made from wood residues. The Dutch company Perpetual Next makes the biocoal and
will eventually supply 350,000 tonnes to ArcelorMittal annually.
By
doing this, the steelmaker is taking a small but important step towards more
sustainable production. Given that the steel industry is one of the largest emitters in
Europe, this kind of sustainability measure is crucial.
For
Perpetual Next, the deal means doubling their biocoal production. The company
has a patented system for making coal from ‘woody residual streams’. This is
called torrefaction,
which comes from the French torrefier, that loosely
translated means to roast. In reactor tanks,
wood raw material is ‘toasted’ at a high temperature in an environment with
very little oxygen. This heating eventually creates coal, which acts in the
same way as fossil coal in terms of use. But since it is made out of ‘fresh’
wood, you can basically make this kind of coal endlessly, while the supply of
coal is finite.
Where
will the biomass come from?
The
wood comes from regular forest preservation and from residual waste from the
furniture industry. It is all certified by an external party,” says Joost
Oostveen, spokesperson for Perpetual Next. In other words, no trees will be cut
down to make biocoal.
And
although the process does need high temperatures, Oostveen points out that it
is carbon-neutral. “You have to use a bit of energy at the beginning to
activate the reactor tank. But after that, it provides its own energy, because
by heating up wood residues we can produce gas. We then extract that gas from
the reactor and use it to heat the wood. So you end up with a continual process
in which we keep adding woody biomass.”
The
idea of torrefaction is not a new one, but adopting it on a large scale was
difficult for a long time. “The industry invested billions in the technology
and a lot of small companies sprang up. But not all of those companies could
produce biocoal on a grand scale,” says Oostveen. That Perpetual Next did
succeed means that they are now able to supply the large quantities of coal
ArcelorMittal needs.
Martijn
van Rheenen, CEO of Perpetual Next, is pleased with the deal and the success of
his company. “We have invested 9 years and more than 100 million euros with our
team in this unique torrefaction technology. By producing green steel with
ArcelorMittal, we have once again found a worthwhile application for our carbon.
This first project with the steel mill in Ghent represents a turnover of
approximately 250 million euros for Perpetual Next over the first 5 years.
ArcelorMittal is manufacturing steel in eighteen countries, so we see the
project in Ghent as a great start.”