Video Remarks: Brad Crabtree's remarks at 6th International Carbon Recycling Conference

I am pleased to join you by video today, and I am sorry that I cannot be with you in person.

I want to thank the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization for organizing the 6th International Conference on Carbon Recycling.

I also want to thank METI colleagues their collaboration with us on carbon management pathways that will help us meet our collective climate goals and responsibilities.

One of those key pathways is carbon recycling or carbon conversion.

In the United States, we have committed to decarbonizing our economy by 2050. Achieving this will require a suite of novel technologies that go beyond straightforward electrification or energy efficiency.

We especially need solutions for sectors of our economy that are hard to decarbonize without a source of sustainable carbon. This includes heavy duty fuel sectors, like aviation and marine shipping, as well as chemicals and materials.

The Department of Energy is investing in technologies that allow us to recycle CO₂ to fuels and chemicals in an environmentally responsible manner. These technologies allow us to tap into a near-limitless supply of sustainable carbon in the form of CO₂ and, in some cases, carbon monoxide to meet the needs of a net-zero economy.

So, when it comes to conversion of carbon emissions, our Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the U.S. Department of Energy is investigating three technical pathways:

• Biological uptake into algae and bioproducts;
• Catalytic conversion; and
• Mineralization.

Specifically, we recently announced funding for engineering-scale testing of electrochemical technologies for fuels and chemicals, as well as retrofitting existing refineries to replace fossil feedstocks with CO₂.

And in August, we made available nearly $128 million to support the development of carbon capture, removal, and conversion test centers that will advance technologies to convert CO₂ into products from cement manufacturing facilities and power plants.

We've also seen legislative support for carbon recycling, including:

• The Carbon Utilization Procurement Grants program in our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides funds for state and local governments and utilities to buy products made from waste carbon emissions, and
• Tax credits that were included in the Inflation Reduction Act to support carbon conversion.

So, we are excited about what we are doing in the United States to invest in the work of industry and research institutions, but we also recognize and applaud the leadership role that Japan is placing to advance carbon recycling.

And we believe that this is an area with significant potential for international collaboration.

In fact, I will note that last year we worked with METI to host the US/Japan CCUS Working Group on Carbon Recycling at our annual meeting in Pittsburgh. We discussed our shared interest in developing e-fuels as an important element of building a broader clean energy and industrial economy. We look forward to continued collaboration with our Japanese partners on understanding and realizing the potential for e-fuels in a net-zero world.

So, today we all have an enormous opportunity to develop and deploy cutting edge tools and technologies to reduce CO₂ emissions and help grow and expand low carbon industries. And we at the Department of Energy look forward to collaborating with our Japanese partners to accomplish this important work.

So, thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you today, and I hope this year's conference is productive and successful.

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