Innovations in Carbon Capture Utilization (CCU) Strategies: Sustainable Approaches and Value Creation

The growing need to achieve deep decarbonization in hard-to-abate industries and to address climate change is driving the large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide utilization technologies. Efficient carbon utilization technologies are required to scale up emission reduction to gigatons per annum in the coming years to meet Net-Zero Targets while reducing the dependency on fossil fuels.

This is backed by the fact that the average year-on-year increase in the carbon capture installed capacity has increased by 58% globally since 2020 as per Global CCS Institute. Large-scale carbon sequestration projects depend on the geographical site of storage locations, increasing transportation costs. Thus, carbon utilization technologies have great potential in enabling decentralized carbon management while generating secondary raw materials that can be used in several high-end applications. Further, raw materials derived from carbon utilization technologies create a carbon-negative economy which is key to achieving long-term emission reduction targets.

The scope of carbon utilization technology deployment is large because it will address the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while minimizing the reliance on fossil fuel resources. Several regional initiatives and favorable policy regulations will be required to accelerate the deployment of large-scale carbon utilization facilities globally.

Carbon Utilization processes are important pathways that produce carbon-neutral synthetic fuels, aggregates, chemicals, and other secondary raw materials which can be used in several sectors or stored for longer durations. Hence, there is a lot of traction to adopt these pathways to accelerate a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy.

This research study covers the following:
•     The technology overview of different carbon utilization pathways, namely mineralization, hydrogenation, methanation, and polymerization.
•     Detailed techno-economic analysis of the operations across the value chain of carbon utilization processes to convert captured carbon dioxide into value-added secondary raw materials.
•     The study also includes key growth opportunities, growth drivers and restraints, key innovators in the industry, and the patent landscape in the carbon utilization sector.