U.S. Steel to pursue emission capture at Indiana facility

Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. (U.S. Steel) and CarbonFree Chemicals Holdings recently signed a non-binding agreement to jointly pursue the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using CarbonFree’s SkyCycle technology at U.S. Steel’s Gary Works manufacturing plant.

SkyCycle technology captures carbon emissions from hard-to-abate industrial sources before it enters the atmosphere, then converts the CO2 into precipitated calcium carbonate and produces hydrochloric acid.

Gary Works’ annual production capability is 7.5 million net tons of raw steel.

“Working with CarbonFree could be a meaningful step in our efforts to decarbonize the Gary Works plant while developing technology and know-how that we could apply to other facilities within our footprint,” Richard Fruehauf, U.S. Steel chief strategy and sustainability officer, said. These potential collaborations are critical to U.S. Steel as we continue our mission of providing profitable steel solutions for people and planet.”

A definitive agreement is expected by the end of the year. If a final agreement is reached, operations would begin in 2025.

The project is expected to capture and mineralize up to 50,000 metric tons of CO2 annually.

Precipitated calcium carbonate is sold to the specialty chemicals market for use in manufacturing adhesives, ceramics, cleaning products, coating, paints, paper, plastics, rubber, and sealants.