Germany has been cleared to grant an aid package of €30.18 million to ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt GmbH’s ‘top gas recycling’ (TGR) project. The European Commission announced its authorisation, on 9 March, of the investment aid under EU rules on state aid for environmental protection.

TGR is an innovative process that separates CO ₂ from other emission gases as they come out of the furnace and recycles the CO ₂-free emissions for steel production. The project is the first-ever application of TGR technology on an industrial scale. It enables steel producers to use less coke and to reduce CO ₂ emissions by 16% compared with existing technology.

The Commission found that the environmental benefits that will result from the aid far outweigh potential distortions of competition. For Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, “the ‘top gas recycling’ technology will enable considerable reductions of CO ₂ emissions in the steel sector. The German measure is a contribution to the key objective of fighting climate change without unduly distorting competition”.

The Commission’s investigation revealed that the aid is necessary because, without it, ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt would not translate the technology into an industrial application. The EU executive’s assessment took into account that even if the price of CO ₂, currently around €14/tonne, doubled, it would still be too low to trigger an investment in TGR technology.