The Carbon Utilization program is administered by the Office of Clean Coal and Carbon Management in Fossil Energy. “Carbon”, in terminology of the Fossil Energy’s carbon utilization program, refers to carbon sourced from carbon dioxide (CO2), or some other related carbon oxide (e.g., carbon monoxide, CO), which is produced in a commercial process and either wasted or underutilized. In general, “utilization” implies upcycling the waste carbon stream into the production of useful goods and/or provision of useful services. The primary focus of the program is early-stage R&D to develop novel ways to transform carbon dioxide into value-added products, generating revenue to partially offset carbon capture costs for the utility and industrial sectors. With this approach, utilization can be deployed separate from or in combination with storage, depending on the scope and scale of any CO2 mitigation effort.
The net cost of electricity generation from carbon utilization
Carbon Utilization seeks to develop a toolbox of beneficial uses which assess market potential, enable technologies targeting conversion efficiency, reduce overall cost and project risk, evaluate lifecycle impacts, and ensure operations are safe, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable.
The five primary CO2 Utilization pathways.
Carbon Utilization technology covers research within four of the five primary CO2 utilization pathways. Descriptions follow:
- CO2 Conversion to Biomass – The use of anthropogenic CO2 in agricultural and aquacultural systems to enhance the production of biomass. The biomass produced in these systems can be processed and converted to fuels, chemicals, animal or human foodstuffs, soil supplements, and other specialty and fine products.
- Biotic Synthesis of Fuels & Organic Chemicals – The conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbon-based products, ranging from neat fuels and fuel blending stocks to commodity, specialty, and fine chemicals. Unlike the conversion to biomass pathway, the approach here is to use single-cell organisms to produce and secrete a chemical directly, without the need to harvest and process biomass.
- Abiotic Synthesis of Fuels & Organic Chemicals – The conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbon-based products, ranging from neat fuels and fuel-blending stocks to commodity, specialty, and fine chemicals. Unlike biotic synthesis using living organisms, abiotic synthesis employs inorganic catalysts. The production of complex fuels and chemicals containing more than two carbon atoms from CO2 will likely require additional conversion steps to complete.
- Synthesis of Inorganic Materials & Chemicals – The conversion of CO2 to inorganic products, such as carbonate cements and aggregate, or bicarbonates and associated inorganic chemicals. Chemical as well as biological processes may be employed to affect this conversion. Carbonate materials may be an effective long-term storage option for CO2.
The R&D portfolio spans private-public partnerships, university research grants, collaborative work with national laboratories, and research conducted through the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL) Research and Innovation Center.
Source: Office of Fossil Energy
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