Nucor Corp. signed an agreement with ExxonMobil to capture, transport and store carbon from the company’s direct-reduced iron (DRI) plant in Convent, La. ExxonMobil will capture up to 800,000 metric tons per year of CO₂ from the DRI plant and store it at an ExxonMobil-owned facility in Louisiana. The project is expected to start up in 2026 and supports Louisiana’s objective of reaching net-zero CO₂ 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. “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.”

The circular nature of remelting recycled scrap in electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) means that Nucor’s steel mills generate roughly two-thirds less than the carbon dioxide of extractive blast-furnace steelmaking plants, even when accounting for Scope 3 emissions, which include all upstream and downstream emissions in the supply chain.