Explainer: What is Carbon Capture and Utilization?

Over the next five years, at least one of those years will likely beat 2023 to become the hottest year on record, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in June.

“We are way off track to meet the goals set in the Paris Agreement,” said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett. “We must urgently do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, or we will pay an increasingly heavy price.”

While reducing carbon entering the atmosphere – decarbonizing the global economy – is the most pressing challenge, speeding up the rate at which we remove carbon is equally important.

"Even if every country and every company achieves net zero by 2050, it won't be enough. We will need to keep removing CO2 for decades afterwards – to reverse the accumulation of historic emissions," wrote Nasim Pour, Lead, Carbon Removals and Market Innovation, World Economic Forum in the Carbon Dioxide Removal: Best-Practice Guidelines white paper.

Given the urgency, scaling Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies is critical, but it's an all-hands-on-deck situation, and innovation in Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) is also needed to rebalance CO2 levels in the atmosphere and prevent future warming.

Natural carbon solutions, including afforestation, remove around 2 billion tonnes of CO2 a year. By 2050, we need to remove around 10 billion tonnes a year, and by the end of the century, we need to remove up to 687 billion tonnes.

‘Engineered’ Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies, including Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) and Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), need to be scaled quickly to make an impact, but this requires investment.

Members of the Forum’s First Movers Coalition – a group aiming to accelerate the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors – have committed to contracting for 50,000 tonnes or $25 million worth of durable and scalable carbon removal by 2030.

The Forum's Carbon Dioxide Removal white paper calls on companies to drive the development and deployment of engineered CDR solutions. It provides guidelines on securing budgets, choosing market access models, and communicating CDR performance.

While CDR is vital for long-term climate stability, reducing the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere is just as critical. Novel ways of utilizing CO2, such as CCU, offer immediate environmental and economic benefits and are likely to play an important role in industry decarbonization if they achieve scale and find larger market applications.

CCU technologies offer a wide range of opportunities both from the environmental perspective – helping to rebalance the presence of CO2 in the atmosphere – and from an economic perspective, using CO2 as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), fuels used for the maritime and trucking industries, chemical manufacturing and even sustainable materials such as concrete.

CCU can drive down costs and scale up innovation, which can have a spillover effect, making CDR technologies more affordable. CCU turns carbon into an economic resource, incentivizing innovation, which lowers costs and scales up efforts — ultimately benefiting CDR.

Carbon Capture and Utilization involves a variety of methods for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and using it either directly, without chemical alteration or indirectly, through transformation into different products. Emerging applications such as the production of sustainable fuels, chemicals, and construction materials are rapidly gaining traction.

CCU follows the 3 Rs of the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) framework, with an emphasis on the latter two of reusing and recycling captured CO2:

1. Remove: This step aims to remove the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere in the first place through innovative ‘point-of-source’ carbon capture technologies.

2. Reuse: This involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and using them directly without chemically altering the carbon molecules. Examples include using CO2 for industrial processes like the carbonation of drinks.

3. Recycle: This is when captured CO2 is converted into value-added products or alternative energy sources through chemical processes. This includes the production of synthetic fuels, chemicals and materials from CO2. For instance, CO2 can be combined with hydrogen to create synthetic hydrocarbons for use in transportation or as feedstock for the chemical industry.

Some technologies may also effectively incorporate a fourth R: Reduce.

Research suggests that if fully deployed, approaches to reuse and recycle carbon could convert 27 gigatonnes of CO2 into products each year by 2050, unlocking a $4.4 trillion opportunity for sustainable economic practices.

Two innovations which use CO2 as a feedstock for fuels for heavy transportation are part of the World Economic Forum’s UpLink platform.

Infinium has developed a process that combines green hydrogen and captured CO2 to create high-quality electric fuels for sustainable aviation, long-haul transportation, and the maritime industry, as well as produce feedstocks for petrochemical industries.

Similarly, a representative of another SAF-focused start-up, AIR COMPANY, which converts carbon into carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals, shared that the demand for such technologies is rising. “There’s a lot of excitement for SAF because our product offers very deep decarbonization benefits, and our carbon intensity is nearly 100% lower when compared to fossil fuels,” explained Natalia Sharova, Director of Government Affairs and ESG.

By engaging and investing in CCU solutions, companies can not only contribute to climate change mitigation efforts but also position themselves as leaders in the transition towards a sustainable and low-carbon future.

To accelerate net-zero efforts globally, the Forum’s UpLink platform and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Economy and Planning announced the Carbon Capture and Utilization Challenge. This is part of the Saudi G20-endorsed Circular Carbon Economy framework, which outlines strategies to reuse, reduce, recycle, and remove CO2.

This collaboration aims to identify early-stage start-ups that are utilizing CO2 to positively impact sectors ranging from construction to chemical manufacturing and transportation. The winners of the CCU Challenge will benefit from visibility opportunities, access to strategic connections and networks, and a shared prize of CHF 300,000 to help scale their business ideas. The innovation challenge closes for submissions on 12 September.