Steel production company Nucor Corporation announced on June 1 it has signed an agreement with ExxonMobil for CO2 capture and storage. The carbon will be transported from Nucor’s direct reduced iron (DRI) plant in Convent, Louisiana. ExxonMobil will capture up to 800,000 metric tons of carbon annually from the plant and store it at an ExxonMobil-owned site in Louisiana.
“This transformative CCS project with ExxonMobil is a key part of our decarbonization strategy and will result in some of the lowest embodied carbon DRI or HBI [Hot Briquetted Iron] in North America,” said Leon Topalian, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nucor Corporation. “We are taking a multi-faceted approach to decarbonization, and this partnership builds on previous investments we have made in a carbon-free iron start-up, renewable energy generation, and the development of small modular nuclear reactor technology.”
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The project is set to begin in 2026 and will support Louisiana’s goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century.
The agreement between Nucor and ExxonMobil is an example of the two companies’ commitment to speeding up the world’s path to net-zero, said Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon at ExxonMobil.
Nucor’s steel mills utilize electric arc furnaces to remelt recycled scrap in a circular process that results in approximately two-thirds less CO2 emissions compared to traditional blast furnace steelmaking plants. This calculation encompasses Scope 3 emissions, which include all emissions both upstream and downstream in the supply chain. Nucor was among the first steelmakers to disclose Scope 3 emissions.
Read more: Wood Mackenzie: Iron Ore And Steel Need $1.4 Trillion To Decarbonize By 2050
