Volume 33: CCUS Technologies for the Carbon Neutrality: Part I

A Review on Emerging, Promising, and Future CCUS Technology Futao YANG, Sheng GE, Guoqiang CHEN

Abstract

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen to 415 ppm from 280 ppm since the industrial revolution in the 1760s, and now it is going up at 2.5 ppm yearly. It is imperative to tackle CO2 emission and to decrease CO2 level in the atmosphere by use of proven CO2 capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology. CCUS technology has been around for decades, and is used to strip CO2 from industry emissions as well as remove CO2 that’s already in the atmosphere. But CCUS technology was not funded and studied for climate mitigation efforts until the 1980s. Utilization of embodied CO2 from hard-to-abate industrial sectors such as steel, cement, glass, and aluminum is promising and emerging. Capturing and utilizing embodied CO2 in these sectors would reduce global carbon emissions significantly as they account for 25% of total emission globally, and 40% as in China. CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR), one of the mature and proven CCUS technologies, only consumes a very small portion of annual total carbon emissions. Some promising and emerging CCUS technologies- includes locking up embodied CO2 in concrete permanently with higher early compressive strength, carbon-neutral fuels for jets, CO2-based plastics, green polyurethane for textiles and flooring, and CO2-derived super-strong and superlight carbon fiber etc.. By 2030, it is estimated that those emerging CCUS technologies can dispose 360 million tons CO2 per year, merely 1% of total global equivalent CO2 emission in 2021. So more practical and solid CCUS technologies must be studied and developed, which will be critical to scaling the CCUS industry for humans to win the battle against excessive CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The fight against global warming is a continuous effort and it never stops. This review concludes with a discussion that more research and studies should be funded to develop emerging, promising, and future CCUS technology for CO2 reduction in cost-effective, environment-friendly, and sustainable ways.

Keywords CCUS, climate mitigation, global warming, embodied CO2, CO2 reduction