Review of technologies that repurpose carbon finds most aren't Paris
Agreement compatible

Date:
February 18, 2022
Source:
Cell Press
Summary:
As the climate crisis becomes more immediate, carbon capture
and utilization (CCU) technology has been touted as part of the
solution. The process involves harnessing carbon dioxide from
emissions or the atmosphere and repurposing them. However, a recent
review calls into question the viability of many of these methods to
meet both the long- term and short-term emissions goals that follow
from the Paris Agreement, and suggests focusing on technologies
that use non-fossil carbon dioxide and store carbon permanently.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
As the climate crisis becomes more immediate, carbon capture and
utilization (CCU) technology has been touted as part of the solution. The process involves harnessing carbon dioxide from emissions or the
atmosphere and repurposing them. However, a review published February
18 in the journal One Earth calls into question the viability of many
of these methods to meet both the long-term and short-term emissions
goals that follow from the Paris Agreement, and suggests focusing
on technologies that use non-fossil carbon dioxide and store carbon permanently.


==========================================================================
CCU typically works by capturing carbon dioxide emissions from
power plants or industry. This carbon dioxide is then converted
using electricity, heat, or catalysts into a new product, like the
fuel methanol. "It sounds really good, right?" says lead author
Kiane de Kleijne (@kianedekleijne), a climate researcher at Radboud
University. "It's taking problematic waste and turning it into a valuable product. But we assessed and harmonized many previous studies on CCU,
and this showed us that CCU doesn't consistently reduce emissions."
For a technology to be compatible with the Paris Agreement, the IPCC
taught us that it must halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and reach
zero emissions by 2050. Of the 74 CCU routes reviewed, 8 met the 2030
target and just 4 were able to reach zero emissions by 2050. De Kleijne
and her team also evaluated CCU's technological maturity, how close the technology is to being ready for widespread use.

"If a technology is not going to reduce emissions by a lot and it's
still very far away from commercialization, then maybe it is better to
redirect funding to technologies that do have the potential of really drastically reducing emissions," says de Kleijne.

The researchers evaluated the efficacy of CCU technologies at reducing emissions through the entire lifespan of the process. In the case of
many CCUs examined, the capture and conversion components are highly
energy intensive, and when the final step of the cycle is the creation
of something like methanol, the use of the end product also generates emissions. "In many cases they don't really reduce emissions compared
to the conventional product, so that is problematic," says de Kleijne.

The review warns that the potential of CCU technologies might divert
attention from more effective emission reduction options like carbon
capture and permanent storage and reducing consumption. The team reviewed, however, a few low-emission CCU systems that store carbon long-term and
that de Kleijne says are promising. For example, the carbonization of
steel slag to create construction materials can sequester large amounts
of carbon which would remain stored indefinitely. In addition, if the
carbon is captured directly from the atmosphere or after combustion of
biomass which has sequestered carbon through photosynthesis, utilizing atmospheric carbon can lower atmospheric concentrations of CO2, something
that de Kleijne hopes to continue investigating.

"We would love to be able to extend our analysis a bit further, because
now we have done this assessment for CCU and it's not looking great,"
she says. "But it would be good to be able to compare it to other
alternatives to replacing fossil fuel-based products or services."
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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Kiane de Kleijne, Steef V. Hanssen, Lester van Dinteren, Mark A.J.

Huijbregts, Rosalie van Zelm, Heleen de Coninck. Limits to Paris
compatibility of CO2 capture and utilization. One Earth, 2022; 5
(2): 168 DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2022.01.006 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220218110713.htm

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