ArcelorMittal launches XCarb Accelerator Programme

ArcelorMittal has launched its search for the best companies and brightest ideas focused on breakthrough technologies which hold the potential to accelerate the decarbonisation of the steel industry.

Breakthrough technology start-ups worldwide are invited to submit applications to compete for investment from ArcelorMittal’s XCarb™ Innovation Fund, which aims to invest up to US$100 million annually in such transformative technologies, and access to ArcelorMittal’s advice and expertise in innovation, research and development, technology commercialisation and business mentorship.

Aligned with ArcelorMittal’s purpose, ‘Smarter steels for people and planet’, the XCarb™ Innovation Fund invests in companies with the potential to accelerate the transition to low, and ultimately zero, carbon emissions steelmaking, enabling them to develop more quickly and achieve the scale needed for their technologies to become commercially viable.

The support on offer is not just monetary,  but successful applicants will also have access to:

• Unparalleled industry expertise and advice
• Industry-leading research centres and R&D programs to accelerate technological development
• Commercial expertise regarding technologies, IP protection and global roll-out
• Significant back office and group functional capability to enable scale-up and speed up time to market

First round submissions are due in by 20 June with more details about the programme.

Submissions are invited across seven distinct technology domains:

• Disruption in steelmaking (processes and technologies)
• Waste to gas or biocarbon (innovative ways to convert waste)
• Gases reforming/Gases transformation technologies
• Disruptive hydrogen technologies
• Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (specifically carbon capture with transformation to chemicals/fuel or permanent sequestration/mineralisation)
• Long-term, large-scale energy storage technologies
• Clean energy technologies

Aditya Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal, said, “The need to reduce GHG emissions is one of the greatest investment requirements of our time.”

Irina Gorbounova, Head of the XCarb Innovation Fund™, added, “This competition provides us with an exciting platform to get involved with and support the best and brightest ideas which can decarbonise our industry.”

Since its launch in March last year, ArcelorMittal XCarb™ Innovation Fund has already committed US$180 million in projects and technologies which are accelerating the decarbonisation of the steel industry transition. To date, its investments have spanned four companies developing cutting edge technologies in the fields of renewable energy, long-term energy storage, carbon recycling and green hydrogen. They are:

• Heliogen, a renewable energy company which harnesses solar energy by using a field of mirrors which act as a multi-acre magnifying glass to concentrate and capture sunlight;
• Form Energy, which is developing a breakthrough energy storage technology;
• LanzaTech, which focuses on capturing carbon-rich waste gases from the steelmaking process and converting them into sustainable fuels and chemicals; and
• H2Pro, a market disruptor producing green hydrogen through the electrolysis of water.