Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – In Ghent, Aquafin and ArcelorMittal will treat sludge from 4 million Flemish residents, generating steam and electricity; Jan Cornelis highlights fossil fuel reduction, cutting ~28,000 tonnes CO₂ annually.
As VRT News reported, in Ghent, Aquafin and ArcelorMittal have joined forces on a new environmental project that links wastewater treatment to steel production. Aquafin is building a sludge mono-processing plant on the steel company’s site.
The facility will handle the leftover sludge from the wastewater of about 4 million residents in Flanders. The sludge will be dried and burned to create high-pressure steam, which will power a 1.3-megawatt turbine.
The turbine will generate electricity and produce low-pressure steam that ArcelorMittal will use in its production process. This will help reduce the company’s need for fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions by around 28,000 tonnes each year. The plant will also recover phosphorus, a valuable raw material for fertiliser.
What can Aquafin and ArcelorMittal do with the sludge from 4 million residents in Ghent?
ArcelorMittal Gent is one of Belgium’s largest carbon emitters. Officials mentioned that it follows earlier efforts such as Steelanol, which makes bioethanol from industrial gases, and Torero, which uses biomass instead of coal.
Construction is ongoing, and the first high-pressure steam generator is scheduled to start operating in August 2026. The delivery of low-pressure steam to the steelworks is expected to begin in early 2027. The exact amount of carbon emissions that will be avoided by the project is not yet clear.
“We use the low-pressure steam for steel production,”
explains Jan Cornelis of ArcelorMittal.
“We’re currently still generating it with fossil fuels. Once the turbine is operational, we can do this in a green way.”
The project is expected to bring incremental environmental benefits. Officials mentioned that it will reduce the use of fossil fuels at ArcelorMittal and recover phosphorus, a valuable raw material used in fertilisers. While the plant alone will not solve all emissions issues.
ArcelorMittal has larger plans for decarbonisation, including projects using hydrogen and direct-reduced iron technology, but these multi-billion-euro investments have been postponed due to high energy costs and market uncertainty.
In June 2022, Aquafin announced it would build a new sludge processing plant at the ArcelorMittal site in Ghent. The plant will treat sludge from the wastewater of about 4 million Flemish residents and recover energy and phosphorus, a valuable raw material for fertiliser. Construction officially started in October 2024 with a consortium led by BESIX and Indaver, and the plant is scheduled to start operating in 2027.
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