While the fight against climate change currently focuses on reducing CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere, the capture of CO₂ from industrial emissions or even directly in the atmosphere is developing. But what to do with this CO₂ once it is captured and refined? Mainly produced from natural gas reforming activities, CO₂ has historically been used for urea production (57%) and enhanced oil recovery (34%). The remaining 10% is mainly used for applications in food processing and metallurgy (IEA 2018). But with the deployment of new CO2 capture technologies from more dilute sources, new ways of valorizing CO2 are emerging with new opportunities for industries. Our Energy-Environment-Mobility team highlighted 5 of them in this article.
In this application, CO₂ can be used to boost the photosynthesis of fruits and vegetables produced in greenhouses and improve production yields by up to 25-30%. This has been implemented by Climeworks in Switzerland for CO₂ from a household waste incineration plant.
Beyond the production of urea, CO₂ can be captured by reaction with potassium hydroxide or ammonium. The salts generated, such as ammonium or potassium bicarbonates, can be valorized as fertilizers. This approach of valorization has been implemented in Luxembourg on a pilot scale by the company CPPE on a clinker production site of Cimalux.
By reacting with a mineral source of calcium or magnesium, the CO₂ can be mineralized to form aggregates or bricks or can be reinjected with cement to be dissolved in concrete. Blue Planet in the United States and O.C.O. in the United Kingdom are two of the most advanced players in this sector.
When combined with hydrogen, CO₂ can be used for the production of methane, methanol, gasoline, and kerosene. If the hydrogen is produced in a decarbonized production process, this route places CO₂ at the heart of a low-carbon-impact circular consumption approach. This approach has been developed, for example, by the Hitachi Zosen Inova group, which combines the production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water with the catalytic reduction of CO₂ into methane. Carbon Engineering in Canada is based on the same principle to valorize the CO₂ directly captured from the atmosphere, which has been in the process of industrialization since 2015.
Once again, CO₂ can replace fossil resources as a source of carbon for the production of plastic polymers, in particular polypropylene carbonates (PPC), polycarbonates, and polyurethane. Their production is already industrialized in China, Japan, the United States, and Germany by major players in the chemical industry such as Asahi Kasei, Bayer, Covestro, or Nanyang Zhongju Tianguan.
However, these new valorization methods are not equivalent in terms of cost, which remains a major challenge, but also in terms of their technological complexity, the duration of CO₂ immobilization, and the energy intensity of the processes. The assessment of the best valorization route will require an in-depth study of the local context of a project: availability of reactants, origin of the available CO₂, availability of renewable energy, addressable markets nearby, etc. And you, are you ready to start capturing and valorizing your CO₂ emissions? We are here to help you!
About the author
Arielle, Project Manager in Alcimed Energy, Environment & Mobility team in France
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