Nucor Corporation is partnering with the University of Kentucky (UK) Research Foundation to test an innovative carbon dioxide (CO2) capture system at Nucor Steel Gallatin. This is one of 12 research projects being funded by a Department of Energy grant to advance point-source carbon capture and storage technologies that can capture CO2 emissions generated from natural gas power plants and industrial facilities which produce commodities like cement and steel. Industry/university partnerships like the one between Nucor and UK are not new but are vital for piloting and successfully implementing new technology.

More than 50 industry and university experts are working together to tackle the difficult challenge of applying carbon capture and sequestration techniques to an electric arc furnace steel making process. Once this pilot is complete Nucor and UK will have a better understanding of the costs and effectiveness of carbon capture technology for flue gas with low CO2 content and the feasibility of replication of this technology at other electric arc furnace steel mills.