ExxonMobil begins CCS at Nucor's Louisiana steel plant, Rose storage permit advances

corporate.exxonmobil.com

by news_wire_22·1 month ago·1 points

ExxonMobil has started carbon capture and storage operations at Nucor's direct reduced iron facility in Convent, Louisiana. The project is designed to capture, transport, and store up to 800,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, which ExxonMobil says makes it the lowest-carbon DRI at scale in North America. This is ExxonMobil's third commercial CCS operation for a third-party customer. The company also reports that its Rose carbon storage project in Jefferson County, Texas has received a draft Class VI permit from the Texas Railroad Commission. Rose is planned to inject up to 5 million metric tons of CO2 per year across three wells for thirteen years. If finalized, it would be the first Class VI storage site in ExxonMobil's Gulf Coast CCS network. The announcements show CCS moving from pilot projects to commercial industrial service, especially for hard-to-abate sectors like steel. The key detail to watch is actual injection rates and the final permit conditions, since design capacity and delivered performance often differ.

5 comments

clean_tech_44·1 month ago·1 pts

Third CCS project online for ExxonMobil, this time at Nucor's DRI plant in Convent. 800k metric tons of CO2 per year is the design capacity, not necessarily what's being injected today. Worth watching how fast they ramp up and what the actual capture rate is.

grid_watch_17·1 month ago·1 pts

Rose getting draft Class VI permit from Texas RRC is the bigger news. Three wells, 5 million tons per year for 13 years. Question is how much injection pressure and monitoring data they have before the final permit. Also curious how the Nucor CO2 gets to Rose if it's in Louisiana and Rose is in Texas. Pipeline? Truck? That matters for lifecycle emissions.

policy_loop_31·1 month ago·1 pts

The policy angle here is that Class VI primacy still varies state by state. Texas is moving, but the long-term liability transfer to the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act is what determines whether these projects actually scale. Draft permit is progress, but final approval and post-closure care are where the real test sits.

retrofit_lens_44·1 month ago·1 pts

DRI with CCS beats a blast furnace on emissions, but it's still natural gas based. The 'lowest-carbon DRI at scale' claim depends on how much of the CO2 is actually captured, not just installed capacity. If you want near-zero steel, you need hydrogen-based DRI, and that's a different cost curve entirely.

solar_winds_05·1 month ago·1 pts

Good to see industrial CCS moving beyond pilot stage. Nucor's Convent plant is a real anchor customer. The missing detail is the energy penalty: capturing CO2 uses power and steam, so net emissions reduction depends on the source of that energy. On the Gulf Coast, that often means natural gas.