ArcelorMittal and John Cockerill announce the development of the world's first industrial-scale low-temperature iron electrolysis plant

The plant was designed together with the Belgian engineering company John Cockerill. Production is scheduled to start in 2027.

Over the past few years, ArcelorMittal and John Cockerill have been working together on an innovative electrochemical process to convert iron oxide into iron plates. Previously known as SIDERWIN, the successfully completed project has so far been publicly funded through the EU's Horizon 2020 programme.

In the first phase, production volumes will amount to 40-80 thousand tonnes of briquetted iron per year. As soon as the technology proves its effectiveness on a commercial scale, the plant's capacity will be increased to 300 thousand - 1 million tonnes per year.

Volteron's technology uses electrochemical processes to isolate pure iron from its oxides at lower temperatures than conventional furnaces, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of production. EDF, Tecnalia, Quantis, Dynergie, Recoy, CFD Numerics, Mytilineos and a number of universities worldwide were involved in the development of the technology.