Generation, capture, and utilization of industrial carbon dioxide

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Human society is fundamentally carbon-based, relying on carbon for energy and consumer goods.
• Disturbances in the natural carbon cycle, primarily through fossil fuel combustion, cause environmental issues like climate change.
• Current industrial practices also disrupt cycles of other elements like phosphorus and sulfur.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the critical impact of human activities on the global carbon cycle.
• To explore sustainable solutions for managing carbon resources and waste.
• To advocate for increased utilization of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a valuable industrial feedstock.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the human impact on natural elemental cycles, particularly carbon.
• Review of strategies for alleviating material balance disturbances: dematerialization, rematerialization, and transmaterialization.
• Assessment of current CO2 utilization by the chemical industry versus atmospheric generation.

Main Results:

• The "low-carbon" approach focuses on reducing consumption and shifting to renewable energy sources.
• The chemical and plastics industries have limited raw material benefit from "low-carbon" strategies, though biomass offers a renewable carbon source.
• Significant untapped potential exists for utilizing industrial CO2 emissions as a C1 building block, provided renewable energy is employed.

Conclusions:

• Effective management of the carbon cycle requires a shift beyond "low-carbon" strategies to include resource and waste attitude transformation.
• Increased utilization of CO2, a renewable resource, is crucial for restoring material balance and mitigating environmental impact.
• Sustainable CO2 utilization necessitates the use of renewable energy sources to avoid further exacerbating carbon cycle disturbances.