The nearly $2 billion decarbonization investment was officially launched with a ground-breaking ceremony on October 13, 2022, marking a historic moment for the company. This transformation towards a low-carbon steelmaking future is the most significant construction project ever undertaken at our company.

And 2022 featured many other milestones in this multi-year initiative, including the launch of the decarbonization project team, engineering and design, equipment vendor selection, research into future use of clean technologies and materials such as hydrogen, biocarbon, and carbon capture utilization and storage, and confirmation of a $500-million investment from the provincial government. The federal government announced its $400-million contribution in 2021.

Decarbonization is an incredibly complex initiative affecting massive and interconnected facilities. The project’s work schedule is expected to include more than 11,000 items. And this transformation in how steel is made at Dofasco must happen while we continue to make steel for our customers.

That includes meeting the product qualifications of the major automakers as new processes are created. That is an enormously technical and complex task. “Being a high value-added supplier of steel is the defining aspect of Dofasco, so it is critical that we defend that position in the marketplace,” said Rob Marzetti, who leads the Dofasco project team.” At the same time, demand is growing for green steel and Dofasco will be well-positioned to grow that market share with this transition to low-carbon production.”

When complete, new assets will mean employees will work in state-of-the-art green facilities after undertaking an estimated 160,000 collective hours of training.

“For our future, there is no better example of clean Canadian innovation pointing the way forward,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the October ceremony. “ArcelorMittal Dofasco is the world’s first major steelmaker to move to cleaner steel. That is a huge competitive advantage in a world where customers are demanding that steel be as clean as possible... Decarbonization is not only the right thing to do, it's the smart and competitive thing to do."

Leading the way

ArcelorMittal Dofasco will remove coal from the primary steelmaking operations, reducing carbon emissions by 3 million tonnes or about 60 per cent by 2028. That is the equivalent of taking 725,000 internal combustion engine cars off the road or planting 138 million trees.

Globally, ArcelorMittal has committed to reduce the carbon intensity of the steel it produces worldwide by 25 per cent by 2030 and to be net zero by 2050. While other projects are slated for Europe (Spain, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France), Dofasco is the first ArcelorMittal site to launch its decarbonization construction.

“This facility will be one of the first in the world to produce near-zero steel,” ArcelorMittal Chair Lakshmi Mittal said at the ceremonial groundbreaking. “ArcelorMittal Dofasco is often held up as a standout performer in the group and that’s because of its people. I’m struck by the excitement there is for this project, and everyone will have an important role to play.”

Vendor confirmed

After many months of planning, we confirmed a vendor for the direct reduced iron plant that will produce 2.5 million tonnes of DRI per year to feed the electric arc furnaces to produce steel. The DRI plant will be the largest single-module direct reduction plant in Canada and will also be the most obvious physical aspect of the decarbonization project.

At approximately 150 metres tall and 14 metres wide, the DRI tower will be a prominent structure on the company’s site and in the city. That height will make it the tallest structure in Hamilton. (The current tallest point is Landmark Place in the downtown, which is 127 metres.)

The plant will initially operate on natural gas but will be constructed “hydrogen ready.”

“One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that, in the future, our DRI module will be ready to be reconfigured so that we can replace natural gas with hydrogen, which will produce almost no carbon emissions at all," says Kyle Ferron, DRI Technology and Project manager at ArcelorMittal Dofasco.

Looking forward, on-site construction work will begin in January 2023 with the demolition of a decommissioned coke plant to make room for the new DRI plant. Demolition is anticipated to take nine months.  

Construction will become visible in 2024 as the structure begins to take shape. It will largely be built off-site and then assembled at the plant by very large cranes in a modular fashion.

Once up and running, the DRI module will be highly automated in terms of monitoring, inspection and predictive maintenance, says Ferron.

“There will be less physical involvement in the equipment, which will make for safer jobs," he says. "There is also an expectation of high reliability and productivity in this unit when we transition to the new steelmaking assets.”

The other major component of the decarbonization project is the construction of an EAF capable of producing 2.4 million tonnes of high-quality steel through ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s existing casting, rolling and finishing facilities. The EAF vendor has yet to be finalized.

Transforming an industry

At its peak, project construction will see about 900 workers on site. It will be complete in 2026, at which point a 12 to 18-month transition phase will begin with both the existing and the new steelmaking streams being active. The transition will be complete by 2028.

But in the meantime, employees at ArcelorMittal Dofasco have been tapped to play key roles on the global team responsible for projects around the world.

“The expertise that Dofasco provides, especially on the EAF side, is impressive. The people asked to join the global team have been identified as high performers with important expertise,” says Tammy Oommen, Associate Program Manager, Decarbonization. 
 
“We are transforming an industry. ArcelorMittal’s global presence is leading the way on a ground-breaking change. I’m very proud of that,” says Sanjay Sagar, an EAF technology process expert working on the global technology, design and standardization team. 

Said Keith Whitely, who is working on the design side of the global DRI program: “We feel the gravity of what this decarbonization project means to our company and our city. There’s pressure but it’s exciting, too.”

At Canada’s Innovation Corridor Summit (CICS) in July, ArcelorMittal Dofasco shared its decarbonization initiative. CEO Ron Bedard shared that it wasn’t long ago that he thought that taking coal out of the steel production cycle wasn’t something he’d see in his lifetime.

“ArcelorMittal Dofasco has a global leadership position on this,” he told summit attendees. “We are finding solutions that will bring important change to the people of Hamilton, Canada and the world. We have a world-class team in Hamilton who are setting the stage for other steelmakers around the world.”