Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is an attractive carbon abatement strategy because of its potential for not only preventing CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere but also converting CO 2 to value-added products: a win-win solution. This approach can potentially make the carbon capture process more profitable and substantially reduce the investment needs for a rather expensive CO 2 storage infrastructure. Over the last few years, interest in CCU has grown significantly, and many innovative technological approaches to the industrial CO 2 utilization are under development, such as CO 2 conversion to construction materials, plastics, fertilizers, fuels, etc. At the same time, the analysis of the CO 2 utilization market shows that all existing industrial CO 2 applications consume relatively small quantities of CO 2 , thus for the CCU to present a practical interest as a sink for anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, the markets for the CO 2 -derived products would need to be increased by orders of magnitude. In this chapter, existing and emerging CO 2 utilization technologies are analyzed in terms of their technological maturity, market size, permanence of CO 2 storage, environmental impact, potential revenue generation, and carbon mitigation potential. The current status and outlook for CO 2 -to-fuel conversion technologies and CO 2 utilization in algal systems are highlighted in this chapter.
IntroductionThe economic challenges of CCS have caused major delays in its commercial deployment; therefore, the capture and industrial use of CO 2 is considered a promising approach to overcome these challenges. Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) presents a very attractive alternative to conventional CCS because of its potential for not only preventing CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere but also converting CO 2 to value-added products, which is seen by many as a win-win solution. The support for CCU has been steadily growing worldwide and intensified during the last couple decades. Currently, a number of commercial technologies are turning CO 2 into Chapter 9Industrial Utilization of CO 2 : A Win-Win Solution 326 building materials, plastics, chemicals, fertilizers, and several projects converting CO 2 into fuels are now approaching a demonstration stage.Although CO 2 has been utilized in a variety of industrial applications for decades (e.g., in food/beverage and chemical industries), the current CO 2 utilization efforts focus on novel pathways and approaches to reducing CO 2 emissions through its beneficial uses (i.e., reuses), particularly in areas where other means of CO 2 storage (e.g., geological storage) may not provide an optimal solution. The advantages of the CCU option are threefold:• The industrial use of CO 2 provides a carbon sink, the extent of which will be determined by the size of the market for CO 2 -derived products and lifetime of these products • CO 2 could be converted to the products generating significant revenues that could potentially offset part of the CO 2 capture and transport costs and make the ...