Industry and government must take steps now toward deploying systems that transform carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into useful products as part of a broader effort to enact a net-zero emissions economy, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The report, the first of two that will be undertaken by the Committee on Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, Research and Development and sponsored by the US Department of Energy, assesses the state of the infrastructure for CO2 transport, use, and storage and identifies key opportunities to improve and expand on that infrastructure to successfully utilize and transform those emissions into products.
Two primary near-term opportunities for CO2 utilization infrastructure investment: Using CO2 sourced from bioethanol plants to make synthetic aviation fuel and mineralization using fossil or non-fossil CO2 sources to generate aggregates for construction materials, including concrete.
“Carbon dioxide utilization provides one of many pathways that will be necessary in order to achieve climate objectives while maintaining safe, reliable, and affordable energy and industrial resources,” said Matt Fry, senior policy manager for carbon management at the Great Plains Institute and a member of the committee that developed the report. “I look forward to continuing our work as a committee with the National Academies to further research and disclose opportunities to deploy these necessary technologies.”
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