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Principles of CO2 reuse
Since 1980, many studies focused on the potential of CO2 to be reused: once captured, why not
apply it to other industries which already consume CO2 or its derivatives, or find new uses for it?
Concept
The idea of reusing CO2 is to make profit in exploiting it as primary resource. It still has to be
captured and extracted from industrial smokes, but instead of being stored underground it will be
re-used in new chemical, industrial or biological applications.
CO2 reuse does not replace storage, as depending on the applications it could eventually return into
the atmosphere after it has been used. The interest of this field lies in the fact that the CO2 that is
used is one that has already been captured, thus preventing more production of CO2 for applications
that specifically need it.
Caption: representation of CO2 reuse
3 fields of application
Industrial uses
Without any transformation, CO2 can be used for its physical properties as a solvent or refrigerant. It
is also used for purposes of enhanced oil recovery (EOR-CO2) such as at Alberta Carbon Trunk line in
Canada.
Chemical and energy products
When it is associated to a component that is highly reactive, CO2 can lead to the synthesizing of a
basic chemical product or an energy product (to produce fuel for instance).
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Microalgae production and biocatalysis
Consumed by living organisms such as algae, CO2 can be used to produce biomass and lead to the
synthesis of valuable products – carbohydrates, oils and cellulosic components. Associated to natural
or synthetic enzymes (biocatalysis), it could generate molecules with high added value (for the
pharmaceutical industry for example)..
Caption: segmentation of the ways to reuse CO2
These methods for reusing CO2 are not all at the same development stage: applications of an
industrial level already exist for some, whilst for others the potential for industrial emergence varies
between 5 and 20 years.
The ways of reusing CO2 are plentiful and they do not all have the same financial of technological
characteristics: there are several obstacles related to the energy consumed for the processes of
reuse, the potential volume of CO2 that can eventually be reused, the extent of time during which
the CO2 can be trapped, and the possible effects of these processes on environment and health.
What scale?
The field of CO2 reuse exists since 1980, but in 2008 still represented only 0.5% of world
anthropogenic CO2 emissions
Although it is difficult to assess the market of CO2 reuse precisely, the classic industrial utilization of
CO2 was estimated to 153.5Mton worldwide (40Mton of which for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery) in
2008, which represents 0.5% of yearly global emissions. The main challenge in reducing CO2
emissions by reusing it consists in finding new applications beyond the 153Mton reused today;
particularly via new technologies which could develop into bigger scale processes whilst ensuring
they remain profitable and positive for the environment.
For instance, synthesizing energy products could ultimately use 5 to 10% of world emissions, i.e.
between 1.5 and 3Gt of CO2 – ten times more than the amount of CO2 currently used.
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Caption: world usage of CO2
The countries most advanced in the field of CO2 reuse are the United States and Japan, who initiated
leading pilot projects for the production of synthetic fuels using CO2. The first European and French
projects appeared at the beginning of the 2000s. The scientific community now tends to
communicate evermore on the potential for CO2 reuse under its various forms, and it is a field that is
expected to continue to develop in the next years.
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