BHP leads steel consortium to explore carbon capture hubs in Asia

Mining giant BHP is leading a consortium of steelmakers in assessing the potential for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) hubs across Asia.

The consortium includes ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, JSW Steel, Hyundai Steel Company and other value chain players such as Chevron and Mitsui & Co – with Hatch as Project Management Officer in collaboration with Global CCS Institute, McDaniel, and Pace CCS. The group is open to additional members.

The initiative, dubbed ‘CCUS Hub Study’, is the first of its kind in Asia, and aims to examine the technical and commercial pathways to leveraging CCUS in hard-to-abate industries – including steel – across the continent. 

By joining up infrastructures and needs, the consortium hopes to create economies of scale for captured CO2 applications in Asia and Northern Australia. Each participant in the study would be included in at least one hub.

Each potential hub explored by the study will present cost and schedule estimates, as well as potential commercialisation pathways by the end of 2026.

“BHP is committed to supporting our steelmaking customers on their journey to decarbonise the industry. With more than 1 billion tonnes of production a year in Asia coming from blast furnace capacity that is relatively early in its production life, it’s important for industry to progress technologies to decarbonise existing steelmaking assets while new commercial pathways to decarbonise steelmaking are developed over time,” said Ben Ellis, Vice President of Marketing Sustainability at BHP.

CCUS Hub Study: Economies of scale for captured CO2

By concentrating on regional hubs, the study aims to find ways to solve the challenge of scale in the CCUS industry, optimising the unit cost of capture, transportation, and storage, unlocking innovative solutions for multiple hard-to-abate industries at once, and ensuring cost and risk is appropriately shared among interested parties.

Beyond technical and commercial pathways, the study will also explore other enablers to make CCUS hubs reality, including regulatory policies and cross-border CO2 transportation options.

Its findings will be shared publicly to promote broader industry learning and support enabling policy frameworks.

Prabodha Acharya, Chief Sustainability Officer at JSW Group, added: “We aim to reduce our CO2 emission intensity in steelmaking by 42% by 2030 from a base year of 2005 and achieve net neutral carbon emissions by 2050. This commitment to decarbonisation has already progressed well and achieved a reduction of carbon emissions intensity by 30% against our 2005 baseline.

“However, we believe that CCUS has to be developed to become a financially viable decarbonisation lever which would be crucial to achieve near zero emissions in the steel sector. Partnerships and collaboration to accelerate the development and deployment of CCUS is essential, and this consortium would help pave the way forward”.