Spring 2026

The team investigated how economically viable it is to retrofit existing hard-to-abate industrial facilities with CCUS. Industry accounts for roughly 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and sectors like steel, pulp and paper, and petrochemicals are often "hard-to-abate" due to process complexity, economic costs, and infrastructure limitations. CCUS retrofitting installing carbon capture and storage technology into existing power plants and industrial facilities may reduce the capital expenses associated with building new infrastructure, though it is a lengthy process involving feasibility studies, engineering site design, equipment installation, and ongoing system testing and maintenance.

They examined this through case studies on nine facilities across three sectors. In steel: ArcelorMittal's Calvert, Alabama facility (564,329 tCO2e/yr; estimated CAPEX $2.1–2.3 billion, OPEX $35–39/tCO2), Cleveland-Cliffs' Burns Harbor facility (7.6 million tCO2e/yr, the subject of a DOE-funded solvent-based pre-combustion capture study targeting 2.7 million tCO2/yr), and U.S. Steel's Gary, Indiana facility (440,000 tCO2e annually, CAPEX ~$150 million, OPEX $60–130/ton). In pulp and paper: International Paper's Riegelwood Mill (1.1 million tCO2e/yr, CAPEX $302.5–352.0 million), Georgia-Pacific's Monticello Mill (476,509 tCO2/yr, CAPEX $138–145 million), and Domtar's Hawesville Mill (116,958 tCO2/yr, CAPEX $200–350 million). In petrochemicals: Dow's Path2Zero project in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta (1 million tCO2e/yr, CAPEX $7.5 billion), ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge refinery, and Motiva's Port Arthur refinery (each with levelized costs near $150/tCO2 and CAPEX in the $12–13 billion range over a 25-year project life, assuming a 90% capture rate).

The team acquired facility-level data across all three sectors, compared retrofitting cost estimates to each company's decarbonization goals, and assessed how well CCUS investment aligned with corporate priorities and facility-level emissions. 

Key takeaways include: there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to CCUS retrofitting, since emissions and costs vary widely even among facilities within the same sector, and retrofitting decisions depend heavily on how closely projected costs align with a company's existing decarbonization targets and timelines.