ArcelorMittal has been awarded $31.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funding by the U.S. Department of Energy for the steelmaker’s No. 7 blast furnace gas flare capture project at its Indiana Harbor facility in East Chicago.

According to a statement released on Thursday by ArcelorMittal, the grant was the only one made in Indiana and one of only nine industrial technology projects across the country selected to receive funds.

The project involves the installation of an efficient recovery boiler to use the waste blast furnace gas generated during iron-making operations to produce electricity and steam on site, the statement said. Current 46 billion cubic feet of blast furnace gas is flared annually instead of being reused to power other operations, and it’s estimated the boiler will save an estimated 3.66 trillion Btu every year from the waste gas, equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to power 30,000 households for a year or to the removal of 62,000 autos from the road.

The project is scheduled for completion no later than March 2012, the statement said, and will “create several　 hundred jobs during the next two years, and protect and preserve thousands of jobs in the region.”

“This Recovery Act grant marks a commitment to Northwest Indiana’s steelworkers,” said U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st. “The project will create jobs now, greatly increase energy efficiency in the steelmaking process, and help ensure the competitiveness and viability of Northwest Indiana’s steelworkers for years to come.”

“ArcelorMittal is honored to be one of only nine companies selected by the Department of Energy to receive funding for energy efficiency projects and our grant will support a vital project within the Indiana Harbor facility,” said Michael Rippey, president and CEO of ArcelorMittal USA. “The energy saved from the blast furnace gas flare capture project at our No. 7 blast furnace will be the equivalent to the amount　 of electricity needed to power 30,000 households for a year. In addition, funding for this critical project will ensure the sustainability of steelmaking in Northwest Indiana for years to come.”

The company’s Indiana Harbor facility is the largest steelmaking facility in the U.S., employs nearly 5,900 people, and is capable of producing over 10 million tons of steel annually. The No. 7 blast furnace, built in 1980 and renovated in 2003, is also the largest in North America with a 12,000-ton per day hot metal capacity.

Posted 11/6/2009