This 31 january, CO2 Value Europe launched a first-of-a-kind report titled “The Contribution of Carbon Capture & Utilisation Towards Climate Neutrality in Europe”, a multidisciplinary study aimed at quantifying the climate mitigation potential of Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) in Europe.
Human-made GHG emissions, largely related to fossil carbon use, are causing drastic disturbances in our climate and ecosystems. To mitigate climate change, there is an urgency to reduce those emissions and to substitute virgin fossil carbon products. Some essential transport and industrial processes can easily be electrified and use renewable electricity, while others, such as process industries, and air and maritime transport need non-fossil hydrocarbons to become compatible with climate neutrality targets.
CO2 Value Europe is advocating for the “defossilisation” of these sectors by promoting the creation of a circular carbon economy based on the principle of CCU. CCU applications are a crucial array of technologies capable of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2), or sometimes carbon monoxide (CO) either from the atmosphere or from flue gases and converting it into essential carbon-containing substances or products such as chemicals, fuels or building materials. Depending on the context, these technologies can reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions, but they can also create negative emissions via Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) when CO2 from the air or biogenic processes is sequestered permanently in products.
The Contribution of Carbon Capture & Utilisation Towards Climate Neutrality in Europe is the first quantitative assessment of the crucial role CCU will play in mitigating climate change in Europe. This two-year exercise was undertaken with international academic, industrial, technological and economic world experts on CCU and related subjects to understand and quantify the potential of CCU, but also to describe the main parameters and key uncertainties associated with the upscaling of these technologies. More than a report, CO2 Value Europe, together with CLIMACT, have created the 2050 PATHWAY EXPLORER FOR CCU, the first-of-a-kind, open-access CCU model to explore and put in context the contribution of the different CCU pathways in the EU.
The key results are summarised below.
- The EU will not reach climate neutrality without CCU. Currently in place economics and regulatory measures represent only 34% of the effort required to reach climate neutrality. These measures must therefore be significantly reinforced by additional measures including societal changes (30%) and technological development (37%).
- CCU represents approx. 21% of the overall GHG emission reduction that can be achieved through technological solutions in the EU.
- By 2050, the EU will be able to capture at least 320 MtCO₂ mainly from biogenic, atmospheric and process emission sources, and convert 55% of it into products, while the rest might need to be stored underground
- By producing 30% of the chemicals, 18% of the fuels, 76% of ceramics, and 100% of prefab concrete, CCU will reduce EU industrial emissions by 20% in 2050. Using CCU fuels in the maritime and aviation sectors will reduce their emissions by 35% and 38%, respectively.
- CCU fuels will answer at least 13% of the EU primary energy demand by 2050.
CO2 Value Europe is the non-profit Association representing the CCU Community in Europe with more than 90 members along the CCU value chain from various economic sectors and the academia, from large companies to start-ups and from industrial clusters to university groups.
Our mission is to promote the development and market deployment of sustainable industrial solutions that convert captured carbon into valuable products, contribute to the net reduction of global CO2 emissions and substitute fossil carbon. We believe that CCU technologies offer a large panel of solutions for hard-to-abatesectors where no or very few other alternatives exist.
CONTACT
Antonio La Mantia
Director of Communications and Events
T +39 380.328.17.10
E antonio.lamantia@CO2value.eu
A Ave. de Tervueren 188A, 1150, Brussels (BE)