Valero Energy Corp., one of the largest fuel refiners in the US, has joined a massive carbon capture and storage project in the heart of the country’s corn industry.

The project, proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions LLC, aims to build an $8 billion pipeline that will transport greenhouse-gas pollution from eight of Valero’s facilities. This comes after Poet LLC, the world’s largest producer of biofuel, also joined the project earlier this year.

The pipeline is expected to carry 18.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

With Valero on board, more than half of the US corn ethanol industry will now be part of the multi-state pipeline project, which includes a total of 57 plants across the upper Midwest.

“That reflects how important it is,” said Bruce Rastetter, founder of Summit Agricultural Group, which formed Iowa-based Summit Carbon in 2021. “The opportunity is to add better markets domestically and then ship that value-added product worldwide to countries that are demanding more sustainability.”

According to Bloomberg, supporter of the pipeline project see it as a way to reduce the carbon footprint in the agriculture industry and tap into new markets for renewable fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel, at a time when the rise of electric cars poses a threat to the future of corn ethanol.

Meanwhile, Poet and Valero had been part of a rival project that was abandoned late last year after running up against regulatory hurdles and opposition from some farmers.

Summit faces similar obstacles and has said it’s learned from earlier mistakes to communicate better with landowners whose property lies along the proposed route of 2,500 miles through five states: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.