Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), or carbon capture and storage (CCS), refers to the set of technologies that trap carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, before either storing them underground or using them for a range of industrial applications. CCUS technologies may be essential for mitigating global CO2 emissions and keeping the world within the 2°C of warming as outlined in the Paris Agreement.
Over the last decade, deployment of CCUS technology has expanded quickly, with global CO2 capture capacity reaching 40 million tonnes by 2020. While this is a significant achievement, it is still not enough to have a meaningful impact on climate change - meeting the Paris Agreement could require global carbon capture capacity to reach gigatonnes per year. Achieving this will require collaboration between industry and government to overcome the technological and economic hurdles associated with CCUS technology, something that could lead to significant opportunity for early movers.
This report provides a comprehensive view of the global CCUS industry, providing a detailed analysis of both the technological and economic factors that are set to shape the industry over the next twenty years. The report considers carbon capture, carbon utilization, and carbon storage individually, discussing the technology innovations, key players and opportunities within each area, alongside a twenty-year forecast for the deployment of carbon capture technology.
The report also considers carbon pricing, providing an overview of carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes (ETS) across the world and discussing how they can incentivise CCUS deployment.
Key questions answered in this report
- What is CCUS and how can it be used to address climate change?
- Where is CCUS currently deployed?
- What is the market outlook for CCUS?
- What are the key drivers and restraints of market growth?
- How do carbon pricing schemes look across the world
- How much does carbon capture technology cost?
- What can carbon dioxide be used for industrially?
- Where are the key growth opportunities for carbon dioxide utilization?
- Who are the key players in CCUS?
- Can CCUS help the world meet the Paris Agreement?
The major steps involved in carbon capture, utilization, and storage. Note, these can all take place within the same facility
Carbon Capture
Carbon dioxide can be captured from both industrial waste gas streams (point-source carbon capture) and directly from the atmosphere (direct air capture). It is generally easiest to capture CO2 from point sources, where CO2 concentrations are higher, and all current industrial scale CO2 capture project rely on point source carbon capture. However, although it is more expensive and less technologically developed, direct air capture has the potential to actively remove CO2 from atmosphere (i.e., it is a negative emissions technology) and has drawn much excitement in recent years, with companies such as Climeworks, Carbon Engineering and Global Thermostat raising hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and engaging in partnerships with major oil and gas companies.
The report provides a detailed analysis of both point-source carbon capture and direct air capture, discussing the technologies involved in both processes and providing an economic outlook for both industries. It includes analysis of the technologies used by industry players, the costs involved in carbon capture and areas of innovation within the field, alongside an evaluation of the future of the industry.
Carbon Utilization
Although almost all of the CO2 captured today is stored deep underground, either in dedicated geological storage sites or for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications, CO2 is a potentially useful feedstock for a variety of industrial processes. CO2 is a versatile molecule that can be chemically converted into a large range of products, including fuels, chemicals, building materials and polymers. Some of these products, such as fuels, will release the carbon stored in them almost immediately, so can only be carbon-neutral products, whereas others, such as building materials, can sequester the carbon for thousands of years.
The main issue with carbon utilization is that CO2 is a very stable molecule, so a lot of energy is needed to convert it into useful products. Innovative companies across the world are developing technology to improve the energy efficiency of CO2 conversion processes, while the increasing availability of cheap, renewable energy is helping to make CO2 utilization a commercially viable industry.
The report provides an analysis of the major emerging areas of carbon utilization: CO2-derived fuels, CO2-derived chemicals, CO2-derived building materials, and the use of CO2 to boost yields of biological processes. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each application, alongside the potential market size and potential impacts of each area on climate change.
Some key players in the carbon dioxide utilization industry
Carbon storage
Carbon storage (also known as carbon sequestration or carbon dioxide removal) is the long-term removal, capture or sequestration of CO2, where captured CO2 is stored underground in a range of locations, including oil reservoirs, saline formations and unmineable coal seams. Because the scale of CO2 emissions ¬far exceeds the current capacity for CO2 utilization, it is likely that carbon storage will play a major role in future emissions mitigation.
Carbon CapUS$ 5,995