Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) present an opportunity to reduce emissions from industrial supply chains by converting captured CO₂ into valuable carbon-based products such as fuels, chemicals and building materials. This report discusses the potential role that emerging CCU pathways could play in a sustainable industrial transition and focuses on the challenges faced by innovators and first movers.

Policies currently favour carbon capture and storage (CCS) over utilization. However, as momentum builds behind industrial decarbonization, CCU merits thorough, context-specific consideration. CCU offers the potential to "defossilize" carbon-reliant industries – but for it to become viable, it requires supportive policy frameworks, patient capital and close collaboration across stakeholder groups.

The report analyses three specific barriers to progress: fragmented and inconsistent policy frameworks that heavily favour sequestration over utilization; the “valleys of death” that emerging CCU companies face, impacted by long development timelines, high capital requirements and immature business models that lack well-defined routes to revenue; and the role of cross-sectoral collaboration in scaling-up nascent CCU technologies within large, mature industrial complexes.