Carbon Capture and Utilisation Workshop: Background and proceedings

The utilisation of CO2 as technological fluid or as feedstock in chemical processes and in biotechnological applications has the potential to be a very efficient tool when merged with development of innovative and feasible technologies that have less-intensive energy and materials consumption and the capacity of temporary or permanent storage of CO2 (other than geological storage). The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Institute for Energy and Transport, and the Directorate General for Climate Action co-hosted a workshop on CO2 re-use technologies in Brussels on the 7th June 2013. The aim of the workshop was to present how the most promising pathways for CO2 re-use are related to climate and energy technology policies, facilitate a dialogue between stakeholders (industry, academia and policy makers) and address the challenges for a possible large scale roll-out of CO2 re-use technologies. A number of six presentations from experts focused on the state-of-the art of the technology, the needs of the sector for large scale deployment and the impact of the CO2 re-use products on the market. In particular, the workshop focused on three promising pathways, i.e. methanol production, mineralisation and polymer production.JRC.F.6-Energy systems evaluatio

Public awareness and acceptance of carbon capture and utilisation in the UK

This paper presents the results of a UK survey of public opinion on carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). The survey of 1213 adults was carried out using a questionnaire developed as a part of this research. The aim was to establish the extent of people’s awareness and acceptance of CCU and to elicit the importance they put on different sustainability issues relevant to CCU. The survey findings suggest that there is a very low level of public awareness of CCU – only 9% of the respondents expressed confidence in knowing what it was. The study indicates that, while the general public are willing and able to express preferences for sustainability issues relevant for CCU, a relatively high rate of ‘don’t know’ responses indicates that respondents were unable to comprehend certain aspects. As public acceptance is vital for successful implementation of novel technologies, the current unfamiliarity and poor understanding of CCU among the general public may hinder its future deployment. However, low levels of awareness and understanding of CCU also mean that there is a considerable potential for public perception to be shaped by relevant stakeholders

Economic evaluation of bio-based supply chains with CO2 capture and utilisation

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) are acknowledged as important R&D priorities to achieve environmental goals set for next decades. This work studies biomass-based energy supply chains with CO2 capture and utilisation. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program. This study presents a flexible supply chain superstructure to answer issues on economic and environmental benefits achievable by integrating biomass-coal plants, CO2 capture and utilisation plants; i.e. location of intermediate steps, fraction of CO2 emissions captured per plant, CO2 utilisation plants' size, among others. Moreover, eventual incentives and environmental revenues will be discussed to make an economically feasible project. A large-size case study located in Spain will be presented to highlight the proposed approach. Two key scenarios are envisaged: (i) Biomass, capture or utilisation of CO2 are not contemplated; (ii) Biomass, capture and CO2 utilisation are all considered. Finally, concluding remarks are drawn.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The application of amine-based materials for carbon capture and utilisation: an overarching view

In the ongoing research campaign to reduce the global atmospheric CO2 concentration, technologies are being developed to enable the capture of CO2 from dilute sources and conversion into higher-value products. Amine and polyamine-based materials feature widely in the literature as solid CO2 sorbents and as catalyst modifiers for CO2 electrochemical reduction; however, advancing lab-scale research into a pilot or industrial-scale application is fraught with challenges, starting with the definition and identification of an effective adsorbent. This multidisciplinary review serves as an essential introduction to the role of amines in carbon capture and utilisation for scientists entering and advancing the field. The chemical and engineering principles of amine-based CO2 capture are considered to define the parameters required of an adsorbent, describe adsorption testing methods, and introduce the reader to a range of amine-based adsorbents and how they can be specialised to overcome specific issues. Finally, the application of electrocatalysts modified with nitrogen-containing compounds and polymers is reviewed in the context of CO2 utilisation

Reviewing life cycle assessments of carbon capture and utilisation - unclear goals lead to unclear results

Carbon dioxide capture and utilisation (CCU) is the process of capturing carbon dioxide and using it to produce a product. It is a potential strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and replacing fossil feedstock in chemical production. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is important to assess the carbon reduction capability and is often used to evaluate the environmental impacts of CCU processes. This study aims to analyse the methodological choices made in life cycle assessments of carbon capture and utilisation systems, and identify and evaluate the logics of the modelling in the studies.LCA studies of CCU processes were found through a systematic search and reviewed regarding LCA methods. The collected articles were coded on different aspects (e.g. goal, system boundaries, impact assessment) and a framework was developed to describe the different scopes the CCU systems are modelled from in the assessments.106 articles were reviewed, published between the years 2002 and 2021. 88 of them evaluate products produced through a CCU route and make a comparison to the existing conventional way.\ua0Thus many aim to do the same kind of assessment, but results from the review show that the scope differs, and the majority do not clearly state their goal with the LCA. There is likely an aim of the study which could include a reason for using LCA, but the goal of the LCA (as in goal and scope definition) is often not found in the article.It was also found that the system boundaries stated in the body of literature are often "cradle-to-gate". The cradle can however be set to different points in the system, and the scope of the studies varies a lot depending on where the cradle starts and what is included in the assessment. In the case of CCU, it is found that the cradle can be at the process the flue gases are captured from (38 cases), the capture process (44) or at the CO2 conversion process (24).\ua0\ua0The justification for not including the whole life cycle of the product (only 19 are to the "grave") can be that the product has the same use and end of life as the product it is compared to, often the conventional alternative. However, only including part of the system in the analysis can give misleading results when the emissions can be presented as negative in the shorter perspective due to the temporary storage of carbon in the product. A longer time perspective and different system boundaries are needed to see if the carbon in the product is emitted or not shortly after leaving the factory gate.Given that CCU processes are often emerging technologies, the purpose and context of the study matter for how the results can be used, but the goal of existing life cycle assessments seldom handles these aspects. The LCA results are often used for comparison with conventional technologies or for comparing the CCU product to an existing product, although not always reflected in the goal. With underdefined goals, different system boundaries and varying methods for accounting, understanding assessments of CCU becomes confusing. This highlights the need for methodological guidelines and clearer goal definitions in life cycle assessments of CCU to ensure meaningful and consistent evaluation of the environmental impacts and potential of these emerging technologies

Scale-up and sustainability evaluation of biopolymer production from citrus waste offering carbon capture and utilisation pathway

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr Miao Guo from Department of Chemical Engineering at the Imperial College London (UK). The cover picture shows modelling research on the co-polymerisation of waste-sourced limonene oxide with CO2 to produce poly(limonene carbonate), which offers a sustainable pathway to achieve carbon capture and utilisation. A computational approach to process design was integrated with sustainability evaluation to model this synthetic pathway and identify the environmental-damaging and performance-limiting steps for further improvement. Our research highlights the potential of closed-loop manufacturing systems with waste recovery, which is instrumental in building a sustainable circular economy

Comparison of different biocathode start-up strategies and evaluation of their microbial community

As most of you know, carbon capture and utilisation is one of the major challenges in Environmental engineering nowadays. Several novel ideas have been proposed to generate chemicals from CO2, one of them is microbial electrosynthesis. CO2 electroreduction opens a wide viriety of posibilities to produce chemicals such as carboxylic acids or combustible gases. This goal can be achieved in a biocathode using a mixed or pure culture biofilm. This technology is currently in the first stages of development showing promising results. This research was possible thanks to the financial support of the ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’ project ref: CTQ2015-68925-R, cofinanced by FEDER funds. Ana Sotres thanks the regional ‘Junta de Castilla y León’ for the postdoctoral contract associated with project ref: LE060U16, cofinanced by FEDER fund

Thermodynamic efficiency of carbon capture and utilisation in anaerobic batch digestion process

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the oil and water industries is becoming common and a significant consumer of energy typically requiring 150–450 °C and or several hundred bar pressure [1] particularly in geological deposition. A biological carbon capture and conversion has been considered in conventional anaerobic digestion processes. The process has been utilised in biological mixed culture, where acetoclastic bacteria and hydrogenophilic methanogens play a major key role in the utilisation of carbon dioxide. However, the bio catalytic microorganisms, hydrogenophilic methanogens are reported to be unstable with acetoclastic bacteria. In this work the biochemical thermodynamic efficiency was investigated for the stabilisation of the microbial process in carbon capture and utilisation. The authors observed that a thermodynamic efficiency of biological carbon capture and utilisation (BCCU) had 32% of overall reduction in yield of carbon dioxide with complimentary increase of 30% in yield of methane, while the process was overall endothermic. Total consumption of energy (≈0.33 MJ l−1) was estimated for the carbonate solubility (0.1 mol l−1) in batched BCCU. This has a major influence on microbial composition in the bioreactor. This thermodynamic study is an essential tool to aid the understanding of the interactions between operating parameters and the mixed microbial culture

Thermo-neutral methane reforming using a flow-through porous Rh-impregnated membrane catalyst reactor for carbon capture and utilisation.

A thermo-neutral process has been developed and tested for the carbon dioxide (CO2) reforming of methane (CH4) with oxygen (O2) and steam (H2O). A catalytic membrane reactor in which the catalytic material is dispersed within the straight through porous network was used to study this process. This design suggests an elegant route for the utilisation of waste gas streams such as vent gas and flue gas streams. It can also be used in the monetisation of stranded gas assets containing large volumes of CO2. Results have demonstrated complete conversion of all the feedstocks into synthesis gas (CO, H2) with a composition of H2/CO = 2. Synthesis gas with this composition or ranging from 1 to 2 has been identified as a key to the production of major heavy chemicals using the Fischer-Tropsch synthetic route