Reducing carbon dioxide emissions has taken center stage in efforts to reduce concentrations of greenhouse gases in the environment. Much effort is going into limiting the use of fossil fuels through increased use of renewable energy sources, switching to alternate feedstocks for industrial processes and developing more efficient processes. While these changes are underway — some more quickly than others — carbon-based products are, and will continue to be, needed for the foreseeable future. Carbon capture and utilization is therefore poised to play an important role in CO2 emissions reduction.
Opportunities for carbon utilization
A new report released in August by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine [1] examines opportunities for CO2 utilization, current technologies, research and development needs, and related policies and infrastructure. Included in the report is also an assessment of how coal waste might be utilized to produce critical minerals and carbon-based materials — particularly long-lived products, such as concrete and other construction materials.
The congressionally mandated report, sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; www.energy.gov) presents a research agenda identifying opportunities for CO2 utilization including: mineralization of CO2 into inorganic carbonates; conversion of CO2 into elemental carbon materials; and chemical and biological pathways for CO2 conversion into organic chemicals and fuels. Highlighted research areas include catalyst optimization, machine-learning techniques, improved reactor design and more. The report offers a number of recommendations for the DOE, for example to prioritize research on co-located carbon capture and conversion.
Government funding support
In mid-August, The DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced additional funding of up to $54.4 million to “support the development of technologies that capture CO2 from industrial and power generation sources or directly from the atmosphere and transport it either for permanent geologic storage or conversion into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals.” The funding announcement lists the following areas of interest that will be supported: reactive carbon capture approaches for point-source capture or atmospheric capture with integrated conversion to useful products; engineering-scale testing of transformational carbon capture technologies for natural-gas-combined-cycle (NGCC) power plants; engineering-scale testing of transformational carbon capture technologies in portable systems at industrial plants; preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) studies for carbon capture systems at existing NGCC power plants; pre-FEED studies for carbon capture systems at hydrogen production facilities using coal, mixed coal/biomass or natural gas feedstock; and enhancing CO2 transport infrastructure.
1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, and Research and Development: A Final Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.17226/27732
Chemical Engineering
Utilizing carbon dioxide
| By Dorothy Lozowski
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions has taken center stage in efforts to reduce concentrations of greenhouse gases in the environment. Much effort is going into limiting the use of fossil fuels through increased use of renewable energy sources, switching to alternate feedstocks for industrial processes and developing more efficient processes. While these changes are underway — some more quickly than others — carbon-based products are, and will continue to be, needed for the foreseeable future. Carbon capture and utilization is therefore poised to play an important role in CO2 emissions reduction.
Opportunities for carbon utilization
A new report released in August by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine [1] examines opportunities for CO2 utilization, current technologies, research and development needs, and related policies and infrastructure. Included in the report is also an assessment of how coal waste might be utilized to produce critical minerals and carbon-based materials — particularly long-lived products, such as concrete and other construction materials.
The congressionally mandated report, sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; www.energy.gov) presents a research agenda identifying opportunities for CO2 utilization including: mineralization of CO2 into inorganic carbonates; conversion of CO2 into elemental carbon materials; and chemical and biological pathways for CO2 conversion into organic chemicals and fuels. Highlighted research areas include catalyst optimization, machine-learning techniques, improved reactor design and more. The report offers a number of recommendations for the DOE, for example to prioritize research on co-located carbon capture and conversion.
Government funding support
In mid-August, The DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced additional funding of up to $54.4 million to “support the development of technologies that capture CO2 from industrial and power generation sources or directly from the atmosphere and transport it either for permanent geologic storage or conversion into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals.” The funding announcement lists the following areas of interest that will be supported: reactive carbon capture approaches for point-source capture or atmospheric capture with integrated conversion to useful products; engineering-scale testing of transformational carbon capture technologies for natural-gas-combined-cycle (NGCC) power plants; engineering-scale testing of transformational carbon capture technologies in portable systems at industrial plants; preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) studies for carbon capture systems at existing NGCC power plants; pre-FEED studies for carbon capture systems at hydrogen production facilities using coal, mixed coal/biomass or natural gas feedstock; and enhancing CO2 transport infrastructure.
Another government program heavily investing in industrial decarbonization projects is the Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP) that is administered by the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). For more on this, see Public-Private Partnerships Spur Decarbonization Efforts, Chem. Eng., August, 2024, pp. 12–16. ■
1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, and Research and Development: A Final Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.17226/27732