Smart steel solutions for a sustainable future

ArcelorMittal Projects' stand at InfraTech 2023 is all about smart steel solutions. The producer of steel pipes and sheet piles will show the necessary innovations to the general public and demonstrate how it contributes to reducing its environmental impact. An interview with Technical Sales Engineer Roel Bijlard on how ArcelorMittal is transforming the world of steel to smarter and carbon-free.

ArcelorMittal Group is committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. "Steel production will have to be fully decarbonized by 2050 with the interim goal of 35% reduction in Europe by 2030," says Bijlard. To this end, a good number of steps are being taken. "There are traditionally two ways to produce steel: from ore in a blast furnace or with scrap in an electric arc furnace. The latter has a lower environmental impact, including lower CO₂-emissions. However, there is not enough scrap to meet steel demand. An average steel structure lasts at least 40 years. That means we now have the scrap quantity available that was produced 40 years ago. And back then, steel demand was much lower than it is today. So it is not possible to completely abandon production from iron ore for hot-rolled coils, for example. However, we are busy converting production in our European plants from the blast furnace process to a DRI process. That is an essential intermediate step towards a completely carbon-free process (based on green hydrogen), where we use gas instead of coal to reduce the iron ore to hot metal."

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - coming full circle

Optimizing the production process is just one of the many steps ArcelorMittal is taking toward carbon-free production. For many decades, successful efforts have been made to optimize sheet pile products. "Partly because of the increased steel quality, we are able to design much more economically. In other words, less steel is needed for a profile to perform the same function," Bijlard clarifies. "In thirty years, the profiles required have been reduced in weight by more than 30%. We are also putting more and more effort into reusing steel sheet piles. Often they are used for temporary applications. By pulling them out of the ground at the end of a project, they can be perfectly reused in a subsequent project. The associated environmental benefits are significant. But at some point, even the reused ones reach the end of their useful life. Then they go into our electric arc furnace and we complete the circle again: from sheet piling to scrap to sheet piling. We can't make it any more circular."

SmartSheetPile

To best determine the behavior and (residual) life of a sheet pile structure, ArcelorMittal has developed the SmartSheetPile. "It is a concept that uses sensors to image all kinds of parameters to extract more information from the sheet wall during, and after installation," explains Bijlard. "During installation, we can use sensors to verify that the sheet piles are not out of lock. During service life, you can think about monitoring actual deformations with inclinometers, strain sensors to monitor loads, or vibration sensors that can record collisions and earthquakes. 

In addition, we supply sensors that register the degree of corrosion. This enables you to take appropriate measures in time, should the construction experience more corrosion than expected. On the other hand, this can actually extend the life of a construction should the corrosion process prove more favorable. So the SmartSheetPile concept is versatile and constantly evolving. Data is monitored in real time and sent to an online dashboard, where we can build in all kinds of automatic alerts for undesirable situations."

The goal of the SmartSheetPile concept, according to Bijlard, is to get an even better grip on the behavior and performance of steel. "It can lead to the development of new models, new calculation methodologies and ultimately to optimizations of steel usage. With the SmartSheetPile, we provide insight into the extent to which calculation methodologies correspond to what actually happens. Also, maintenance can be planned better and preventively, resulting in less downtime." At InfraTech, visitors to the ArcelorMittal Projects booth can experience the SmartSheetPile concept for themselves using a demo of the smart sheet pile wall. They are also hosting two interesting lectures on January 18 about the sustainability ambitions and the SmartSheetPile. You can register for the lectures via the following url: projects.arcelormittal.com/form/lecture.