At that time, the two entities signed a five-year agreement to work jointly on the research and development of innovative projects and services concerning energy efficiency improvement and the responsible use of resources, multiple energy efficiency optimization measures, heat recovery, and power generation from surplus heat.

LIST, whose vocation is to transfer scientific and innovative solutions to economic and industrial stakeholders, has been bringing its expertise to ArcelorMittal for the past three years, centered around the concept of "the Forge", where ideas and possible project leads are developed and tested as part of ArcelorMittal's transition process towards circular and decarbonized steel production.

After analyzing needs and opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of steel plants and increase their energy efficiency, working groups are making progress on the main themes identified, namely:

• A detailed characterization, in terms of quantity and temperature, of excess heat from production processes,
• Energy and material recovery from slag,
• The conversion of the excess heat into electricity.

It is precisely on the basis of this latest technical report that the Heat2Power project was born. This research project deals with the complexity of the design of electricity production units from waste heat in the steel industry. Software based on mathematical optimization has been developed to select the optimal combination of several technologies to generate electricity from heat lost during the production process. This project is supported by the Fonds National de la Recherche.

The partnership between LIST and ArcelorMittal Luxembourg is part of ArcelorMittal's CSR* policy in Luxembourg and the group's ambition to significantly reduce its carbon footprint in Europe by 2030, and to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 in line with its commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Dr. Thomas Kallstenius, CEO of LIST stated: "LIST is delighted to support ArcelorMittal Luxembourg, and to collaborate in the field of energy with this key local economic actor for almost 10 years. We are all the more on the same wavelength as sustainability is one of the fundamental values of LIST and is considered from the design phase of all our projects. I am pleased with the first encouraging results presented today and would like to congratulate the teams involved.”

Mr. Roland Bastian, Managing Director of ArcelorMittal Luxembourg, underlined: "Thanks to this partnership, we are making progress in the development of concrete solutions that can potentially be applied throughout the ArcelorMittal group. We are proceeding with a forward-looking and long-term strategic vision in the energy field, which is particularly important in the current context. Having a partner like LIST is essential to making progress in these key areas.” Over the next two years, LIST and ArcelorMittal Luxembourg teams will continue their work, focusing in particular on subjects related to the decarbonization of steel production.

*CSR : Corporate Social Responsability