UAE steel and building materials company Emsteel has signed a deal with Dubai-based Gulf Cryo to advance a fully integrated carbon dioxide (CO2) business model across its operations.
The memorandum of understanding covers carbon capture at source alongside downstream CO2 utilisation, conversion, and storage technologies, supporting both companies’ decarbonisation strategies.
“This [move] is key to accelerating and derisking industrial decarbonisation,” said Elie Adaimy, Group Head Business Development and Innovation at Gulf Cryo.
“We … unlock the value of captured CO2 at scale and enable the emergence of new low-carbon industrial ecosystems,” he added.
The deal, which was signed during the Make it in the Emirates event, comes several months after Gulf Cryo opened its first in the UAE.
Developed in partnership with RAK Ceramics in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, the plant captures CO2 from the manufacturer’s emissions and converts them into food-grade CO2.
EMSTEEL produces around 3.5 million tonnes of steel each year ©EMSTEEL
The site is expected to capture around 17,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
According to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the UAE plans to spend $63bn on renewable energy production and distribution projects by 2030.
Steel companies in the GCC are already developing roadmaps based on these national guidelines. Currently, the region’s steel industry consists entirely of electric arc furnace plants, which mainly use direct reduced iron for steelmaking.
There is currently only one active carbon capture, utilisation, and storage project in the regional steel industry. It is being implemented by Emsteel in conjunction with the oil and gas corporation Adnoc.
The facility, located at the Al Reyadah steel plant, can capture up to 800,000 tonnes of CO2 annually before it is transported for storage at Adnoc’s oil fields.
The next project is expected to be that of Oman’s Jindal Shadeed, which will begin in 2023. It involves the construction of a facility for capturing and processing CO2 into solid carbon with a capacity of 2,700 tonnes per year.
