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.

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

Currently, most carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects use captured CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), where CO₂ is injected into depleted oil wells to help increase oil output. Outside of tax credits, this remains one of the only ways that carbon storage can be monetised, although it can require high oil prices to be commercially viable and may struggle as a long term option in a world increasingly transitioning away from fossil fuels.

 

The report discusses the various options for carbon storage, including the mechanisms of CO₂ trapping, the different options for geologic CO₂ storage and the global potential for CO₂ storage. It discusses how EOR can be an on-ramp for wider CCS deployment, and discusses the implications of oil prices on CCS, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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