U.S. should pursue CO2 utilization to ensure sustainability of fossil fule-based products, new report says

(WO) ― Carbon dioxide utilization can play an important role in the future net-zero emissions economy by providing a sustainable foundation for essential carbon-based products, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

In a net-zero emissions future, fossil fuels would largely be replaced by renewable or nuclear sources of energy, but carbon-based products, such as aviation fuels, plastics, and construction materials, will still need to be produced.

CO₂ utilization can recycle or store carbon captured from the atmosphere or directly from an emissions source, and via mineralization, biological, or chemical conversions turns it into useful products.

The new report examines market opportunities for CO₂ utilization, techno-economic and life-cycle assessments of current technologies, research and development needs, potential policy and regulatory frameworks, and enabling infrastructure.

The U.S. should pursue CO₂ utilization as a tool for managing carbon flows and ensuring that sought-after products can be made sustainably, says the report. It sorts essential carbon-based products into two categories based on their expected life span:

Short-lived products, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aviation fuels, and food and animal feed, which can participate in a circular carbon economy.

Long-lived products, including concrete, aggregates, construction materials, carbon fiber, and other elemental carbon materials, which durably store carbon.

CO₂ utilization has the potential to operate at a global annual scale of multiple gigatons. Realizing the climate benefits and market opportunities of CO₂ utilization technologies and infrastructure will require fundamental changes to current policy, economic, and regulatory structures, the report says.                                                   

“When we talk about a net-zero emissions future, we’re talking about a world where there is no additional CO₂ accumulating in the atmosphere ― but we’ll still need to produce and use many carbon-based products,” said Emily Carter, senior strategic adviser and associate laboratory director for applied materials and sustainability sciences of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

“CO₂ utilization isn’t going to be the only way we deal with climate change, but it could play a key role ensuring we can meet society’s needs sustainably. The U.S. must ramp up research and development to become a carbon utilization leader and an exemplar for the world.”

CO₂ utilization can complement carbon capture and sequestration technologies by providing economic value via useful products. Co-locating infrastructure for CO₂ capture, utilization, and storage and their enabling technologies could streamline operations, lower transportation costs, and enhance job opportunities. The report recommends that the U.S. Department of Energy prioritize funding research on co-located capture and conversion projects.

Companies will need reliable standards and methods of certification before a functional market can be created. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the General Services Administration should develop processes for the certification, permitting, and approval of common CO₂-derived materials and products derived from coal waste.

DOE and the U.S. Department of Commerce should track efforts to introduce these products, both in the U.S. and abroad, and consider developing a program to label products based on their carbon intensity and life-cycle impacts.

Research, development, and demonstration. CO₂ can be converted into a wide range of products, but knowledge gaps and technical barriers still need to be addressed to advance CO2 utilization technologies and enable widespread use.

DOE should work to increase understanding of environmental, market, resource, and workforce impacts of CO₂ utilization, the report says. DOE should also support efforts to inform the public about carbon management opportunities, needs, risks, and benefits.

The report contains a comprehensive research agenda aimed at helping overcome technical barriers. It identifies priority research, development, and demonstration needs to enable CO₂ and coal waste utilization in a net-zero future, and recommends actions to be taken by government, industry, and academia across all approaches for CO₂ conversion, highlighting research areas such as:

• designing and optimizing catalysts
• developing computational modeling and machine learning techniques
• improving genetic, metabolic, and microbial technologies
• improving reactor design, engineering, and systems integration
• advancing the demonstration and deployment of enabling resources, infrastructure, and facilities

Additional recommendations. The report provides a range of other findings and recommendations on techno-economic and life-cycle assessments, CO₂ infrastructure, policy mechanisms, meaningful community engagement, tracking of community impacts, and environmental justice and education. Included among these recommendations are that:

• The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration should collaborate with researchers and industry to model, test, and mitigate hazards of CO₂
• Congress should facilitate long-term investment decisions by industry that are aligned with net-zero goals and that avoid stranded assets, by establishing clear, durable policies.

The report expands on a 2023 report that spotlighted the status, needs, and opportunities for CO₂ utilization market and infrastructure development, and also updates a 2019 report on utilization of gaseous carbon waste streams.

The study — undertaken by the Committee on Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, Research, and Development — was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.