Nucor and ExxonMobil have entered into a carbon capture and storage agreement

American steel company Nucor announced the signing of an agreement with ExxonMobil for carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS) from a direct reduction iron (DRI) plant in Louisiana. It is stated in a Nucor’s press release.

ExxonMobil will capture up to 800,000 metric tons of carbon from the DRI plant and store the CO₂ at its facility in Louisiana. The project is expected to be launched in 2026 and support the state’s goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050.

«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 in North America,» said Leon Topalian, Chair, President and CEO of Nucor Corporation.

Thanks to its recycling-based production method, Nucor is already one of the greenest steel producers in the world, the company said in a statement. Thanks to the circular nature of remelting recycled scrap in electric arc furnaces, the corporation’s steel plants produce about two-thirds less carbon than blast furnaces, even when taking into account Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions from the entire value chain). Nucor is one of the first steel companies to make its Scope 3 emissions public.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Nucor and American NuScale Power signed a memorandum to explore the feasibility of deploying small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) power plants at Nucor’s electric arc furnace plants. The companies will evaluate site suitability, power line connectivity and capital costs for potential NuScale power plants. The agreement also provides for an expanded manufacturing partnership.