ArcelorMittal and John Cockerill to build the world's first iron electrolysis plant

ArcelorMittal, the world's leading steelmaker based in Luxembourg, has announced a partnership with John Cockerill, a Belgian engineering company, to build the world's first industrial low-temperature iron electrolyser.

Volteron™ plant scheduled to start up in 2027

In the first phase, the Volteron™ plant will produce 40,000-80,000 tons of sheet iron per year, with a scheduled commissioning in 2027. After the introduction of the technology, the plant's annual capacity will be increased to 300,000–1 million tons.

Volteron™ is a carbon-free cold direct electrolysis process. With this process, the plant can extract iron from iron ore using electricity.

Direct electrolysis is one of three decarburization process paths ArcelorMittal is working on to make zero-emission steel production a reality. The other two are Smart Carbon and Innovative-DRI. The Smart Carbon Path involves re-routing blast furnace steelmaking and using clean energy sources including bioenergy and carbon capture and storage, while the Innovative-DRI Path involves using hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron, a metal feedstock for the production of steel in an electric arc furnace.