Most carbon capture and reuse technology 'emits more CO2 than it captures'



Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Mon, 21 February 2022

Schemes to capture and reuse carbon dioxide largely don't work, researchers have warned.

Most efforts to capture and reuse carbon dioxide in industry emit more CO2 than they capture - and won’t reduce emissions enough to comply with the Paris agreement.

Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands also warned that technologies that would be sufficient are often not market-ready.

The concept of CO2 capture and utilisation (CCU) sounds promising: capturing carbon dioxide, from industrial gases for example, and using it to produce chemicals, fuels and other materials.

But the Radbud University researchers found that 32 out of 40 technologies emitted more carbon than they captured, New Scientist reported.

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Just four methods were ready for use while also emitting low amounts of carbon.

There are various different ways to capture and use CO2.

For instance, it can be captured from gases released during fossil fuel combustion in a power plant or a factory, but it can also be taken directly from the atmosphere or from the combustion of biomass.

Subsequently, the CO2 can be used, for example in greenhouse cultivation, or it can be converted into products like fuel.

While CO2 is re-emitted when such fuels are combusted, the captured carbon dioxide can also be used in materials that never return the CO2 to the atmosphere, such as certain building materials.

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Kiane De Kleijne, environmental scientist and the study's first author, said: "We know that the involved chemical processes also use energy, and that captured CO2 is often emitted soon after it has been used in a product. We therefore wanted to assess the real reduction in CO2."

The scientists concluded that it is impossible for most CCU methods to sufficiently reduce industrial CO2 emissions in time.

Co-author Heleen de Coninck wrote: "Some technologies do not reduce CO2 emissions enough throughout their life cycle, and others will not be ready in time. There are only a few that are good enough for a carbon-neutral world."

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"A great deal of innovation is necessary to further develop CCU methods that are fully carbon-neutral," De Kleijne added.

"But money is still being spent on CCU methods that will come too late or inherently will not be able to reduce emissions enough to contribute to the Paris goals."