The CO2 opportunity

Many climate researchers view it as the biggest threat to the planet: carbon dioxide (CO2). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions rose by the equivalent of 52 gigatonnes of CO2 in 2010. Fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes, along with forestry processes and other land use, account for 72% of these emissions. More than any other factor, say the experts, carbon dioxide emissions drove climate change between 1750 and 2005.

The search for safe ways to dispose of the gas began years ago, and many politicians and scientists across the world have since pushed CCS strategies. At first glance at least, capturing the CO2 produced by large industrial plants, compressing it for transportation and then injecting it deep into rock formations at safe, carefully selected sites for permanent storage seems like a great solution to the problem. The Global CCS Institute currently lists 15 large-scale projects in operation, with a further seven under construction. In all, the total capture capacity of all of these projects will total around 40 million tonnes of CO2 annually. 

That’s good progress, but CCS is not even close to meeting the International Energy Agency’s target for 2025 (540 million tonnes). And the IEA says that only that – in combination with other measures – would lay the groundwork for an emissions trajectory consistent with at least a 50% chance of limiting average global temperature increases to 2°C by 2050. “It’s very clear that we now need to shift into a higher gear if CCS is to play its full part in addressing climate change,” said the institute’s CEO Brad Page back in 2015. To get on track though, investments in CCS would have to increase by an order of magnitude.

It’s now grown increasingly unclear whether this steep ramp-up in investments will ever occur. For many experts, CCS was never an optimal solution. “First of all, there are the costs. CCS is basically a non-profit technology, where every step is expensive,” says Lothar Mennicken. The senior adviser at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in the Resources and Sustainability Division is in charge of raw materials, including the budding field of CCU. Another feature common to all CSS approaches is that there’s no inclination to add value to the captured gas.

Read the full background on CO₂ capture and utilisation in our print magazine!

• The pathways for CO₂ utilisation
• European CO2 storage projects and companies
• Selected open and forthcoming EU calls concerning CCS/CCU technologies
• Outlook and Expert opinion