The Rise of CO2 as a Feedstock

by Lucca Henrion Henrion, Joe Árvai, Lauren Lutzke and Volker Sick (Green Biz) ... The technology to capture climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks, and even from the air around us, already exists; so too does the technology to use this carbon dioxide to make products such as plastics, concrete, carbonated drinks and even fuel for aircraft and automobiles.

That combination — known as carbon capture and utilization — could take up billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions if the technologies were adopted across a range of sectors worldwide.

That’s why technologies that can reuse carbon dioxide to avoid fossil fuel use — or even better, lock it away in long-lived products such as cement — are essential.

The key to carbon capture and utilitization’s potential is that these products have economic value. That value can give companies the incentive to deploy the technology at the global scale necessary to slow climate change.

Safety was a concern for many people in the survey. One-third didn’t know if these products might pose a health risk, and others thought they would. It’s important to understand that products made with captured carbon dioxide are subject to the same safety regulations as traditional materials used in food and consumer products. This includes filtering out unwanted pollutants in the flue gas before using the carbon dioxide in carbonated beverages or plastics.

When carbon dioxide is used as a raw material, it becomes chemically stable once it is used to create a product, meaning carbon dixoide used to create plastic will not turn back into a gas on its own.

What people may not realize is that most carbon dioxide used nationwide is already a fossil fuel byproduct from the steam-methane reforming process. This carbon dioxide is used widely for purposes that include making dry ice, performing certain medical procedures and carbonating your favorite soda.

Overall, we found that people were open to using these products, and that trend crossed all ages, levels of education and political ideologies.

Carbon capture and use already has bipartisan support in Washington, and the Department of Energy is funding research in carbon management. Bipartisan consumer support could quickly expand its use, creating another way to keep carbon emissions out of the air.

Recently, Unilever and partners piloted replacing fossil-based ethanol with carbon dioxide-based ethanol for manufacturing laundry detergent, significantly reducing the associated ethanol emissions. Both are cost-competitive methods to capture and use carbon dioxide, and they demonstrate why carbon capture and use could be the most market-friendly way to remove carbon dioxide on a large scale. READ MORE

Excerpt from Climate Now: What does it take to turn an idea that could help fight climate change into a self-sustaining business? We often hear the glamorous stories of startups that have made it, but little about the struggles, the learning, and the luck required to get there.

Pol Knops, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Green Minerals, joined Climate Now to share his ongoing journey to design, develop and market a process that transforms carbon dioxide emissions into a useful product.

Green Minerals speeds up the natural process of mineralization, in which CO2 chemically reacts with iron, magnesium or calcium-rich minerals to form a new mineral, permanently trapping the CO2.

The Green Minerals mineralization process uses olivine to react with captured CO2 to create feedstocks for the concrete and paper industries. READ MORE; includes AUDIO