The meeting, which opened Sunday, June 23, and will go through June 27, is an academic conference on carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and strategy-related aspects – from the perspective of industry, science, and policy.
The International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilization has been around since 1991 in different parts of the globe, and since 2015, has been an annual event.
The climate crisis necessitates that we find a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. To date, science has already moved from research on CO2 emissions, to studies on CO2 sequestration and onto actual utilization of CO2 in making useful products. CO2-emission reduction targets and the goal to substitute fossil carbon for production are two challenges that can be addressed by CO2-utilization technologies.
Until recently, it was thought that the best way to rid the atmosphere of CO2 gasses was to bury them underground, a process called sequestration. However, this method is not only costly but inefficient. It is far more appealing for many stakeholders to think of carbon as a raw material that can be converted into cash.
CO2 utilization will play a major role in the efforts of society towards a more sustainable world, fighting climate change and reducing dependency on fossil resources.
The BBC is reporting that Katy Armstrong, manager of the Carbon Utilisation Centre at Sheffield University, put it this way: “We need products for the way we live – and everything we do has an impact. We need to manufacture our products without increasing CO2 emissions, and if we can use waste CO2 to help make them, so much the better.”
From science to industrial application
Scientists and other industry experts will be showcasing firms with projects that are converting CO2 into polymers, fertilizers, fuels, building blocks, proteins, and foams. It is surprising that these carbon usage firms actually take in more carbon emissions than they produce, making them carbon-negative.
Additionally, a project report also confirms that about seven gigatonnes of CO2 could be absorbed and locked up into new products, like fertilizers, the carbonation in beer or building blocks made from converted CO2.
Turning CO2 into fertilizer
CCm Technologies is a cleantech technology company, based near Oxford, in Swindon, UK. The company has developed a method of producing fertilizer and soil conditioner through the use of captured carbon dioxide from industrial power generators.
The company’s application extensions have been developed for the sewage sector — allowing for the capture of the waste Phosphorous and Ammonia, currently being discharged into watercourses, to be integrated into CCm’s upgrading of the bio-solids into fertilizer.
The recipe is simple: Mix left-over sludge with nutrient-rich wastes from the fertilizer industry, sewage plants, farms or the food industry. Pump in CO2 to bind the nutrients in the sludge. The end result of the process is high-grade pellets that have soaked up more CO2 than they produced. The technology has already won export orders.
CCm was recognized with an international prize by Alberta, Canada four years ago and is developing commercial projects across the province; it is worth noting that Canadian CO2 emissions are significantly higher than Europe at over 6.5 tonnes.
CO2 to beer bubbles
Strutt and Parker Farms, in Suffolk, UK is environmentally conscious and their green credentials show in their use of solar and wind power. Strutt and Parker have a number of rooftop and mounted solar projects installed across the farming portfolio, and these help to reduce the farming business’s operational costs by offsetting electricity that would otherwise be imported.
The farm operates two biomethane to grid AD plants through subsidiary companies Euston Biogas Limited and S&P Biogas Limited. The product from the bio-digesters is then extracted and using advanced membranes, food grade CO2 is extracted.
On their website, Strutt and Parker Farms state the green credentials of the plant are further reinforced through the strict sustainability criteria regulations that we have to adhere to surrounding the carbon footprint of the supply chain of the feedstocks that we use.
How much CO2 can we get rid of?
Scientists say that every year, approximately 37 gigatonnes of CO2 is emitted from our homes, cars, planes, offices and by various industries. These emissions can be utilized by our industries. Of course, the report from the conference in Germany says it is possible to use seven gigatonnes right now with the new technologies in use today.
Sheffield University’s Katy Armstrong described this figure as hugely optimistic. But she said: “Every tonne that’s captured is a tonne that doesn’t heat the atmosphere, so let’s hope the industry thrives.
