New Report Lays Out Role for Carbon Dioxide Utilization in U.S. Economy, Identifies Research Gaps and Opportunities

WASHINGTON ― Carbon dioxide utilization can play an important role in the future net-zero emissions economy by providing a sustainable foundation for essential carbon-based products, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) - a climate-warming gas - are released yearly from the burning of fossil fuels, certain industrial processes, and other activities. In a net-zero emissions future, fossil fuels would largely be replaced by renewable or nuclear sources of energy, but carbon-based products, such as aviation fuels, plastics, and construction materials, will still need to be produced. CO2 utilization can recycle or store carbon captured from the atmosphere or directly from an emissions source, and via mineralization, biological, or chemical conversions turns it into useful products.

The new report examines market opportunities for CO2 utilization, techno-economic and life-cycle assessments of current technologies, research and development needs, potential policy and regulatory frameworks, and enabling infrastructure. It also assesses prospects for utilizing coal waste to produce carbon-based materials and critical minerals.

The U.S. should pursue CO2 utilization as a tool for managing carbon flows and ensuring that sought-after products can be made sustainably, says the report. It sorts essential carbon-based products into two categories based on their expected life span:

• Short-lived products, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aviation fuels, and food and animal feed, which can participate in a circular carbon economy.
• Long-lived products, including concrete, aggregates, construction materials, carbon fiber, and other elemental carbon materials, which durably store carbon.

CO2 utilization has the potential to operate at a global annual scale of multiple gigatons. Realizing the climate benefits and market opportunities of CO2 utilization technologies and infrastructure will require fundamental changes to current policy, economic, and regulatory structures, the report says.

"When we talk about a net-zero emissions future, we're talking about a world where there is no additional CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere ― but we'll still need to produce and use many carbon-based products," said Emily Carter, senior strategic adviser and associate laboratory director for applied materials and sustainability sciences of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "CO2 utilization isn't going to be the only way we deal with climate change, but it could play a key role ensuring we can meet society's needs sustainably. The U.S. must ramp up research and development to become a carbon utilization leader and an exemplar for the world."

CO2 utilization can complement carbon capture and sequestration technologies by providing economic value via useful products. Co-locating infrastructure for CO2 capture, utilization, and storage and their enabling technologies could streamline operations, lower transportation costs, and enhance job opportunities. The report recommends that the U.S. Department of Energy prioritize funding research on co-located capture and conversion projects.

Companies will need reliable standards and methods of certification before a functional market can be created. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the General Services Administration should develop processes for the certification, permitting, and approval of common CO2-derived materials and products derived from coal waste. DOE and the U.S. Department of Commerce should track efforts to introduce these products, both in the U.S. and abroad, and consider developing a program to label products based on their carbon intensity and life-cycle impacts.

Research, Development, and Demonstration

CO2 can be converted into a wide range of products, but knowledge gaps and technical barriers still need to be addressed to advance CO2 utilization technologies and enable widespread use. DOE should work to increase understanding of environmental, market, resource, and workforce impacts of CO2 utilization, the report says. DOE should also support efforts to inform the public about carbon management opportunities, needs, risks, and benefits.

The report contains a comprehensive research agenda aimed at helping overcome technical barriers. It identifies priority research, development, and demonstration needs to enable CO2 and coal waste utilization in a net-zero future, and recommends actions to be taken by government, industry, and academia across all approaches for CO2 conversion, highlighting research areas such as:

• designing and optimizing catalysts
• developing computational modeling and machine learning techniques
• improving genetic, metabolic, and microbial technologies
• improving reactor design, engineering, and systems integration
• advancing the demonstration and deployment of enabling resources, infrastructure, and facilities

Using Coal Wastes

Although production and consumption of coal have fallen substantially in the U.S., there is an abundance of waste left over from the mining, preparation, and burning of coal. The report says that this waste, predominantly located in the Appalachian and Intermountain West regions, is both an environmental contaminant in need of remediation and a material containing useful components that could be extracted and used ― including for technologies necessary for decarbonization. Products of coal waste utilization include:

• Critical minerals (e.g., cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements) from acid mine drainage
• Carbon fiber, carbon foam, and materials for 3D printing, energy storage, and construction from impoundment waste
• Asphalt, drywall, concrete blocks, cement, and critical minerals from coal combustion residuals

Carbon-containing products from coal waste must be long lived so they do not contribute emissions to the atmosphere. Congress should appropriate funds for a Carbon Materials Science Initiative, which has been authorized through the CHIPS and Science Act, to fund research into coal waste utilization, the report says. DOE and the U.S. Department of Defense should fund the development of novel technologies for extracting critical minerals from coal waste streams and efficiently converting coal waste into long-lived carbon products.

Additional Recommendations

The report provides a range of other findings and recommendations on techno-economic and life-cycle assessments, CO2 infrastructure, policy mechanisms, meaningful community engagement, tracking of community impacts, and environmental justice and education. Included among these recommendations are that:

• The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration should collaborate with researchers and industry to model, test, and mitigate hazards of CO2 pipelines.
• Congress should facilitate long-term investment decisions by industry that are aligned with net-zero goals and that avoid stranded assets, by establishing clear, durable policies.

The report expands on a 2023 report that spotlighted the status, needs, and opportunities for CO2 utilization market and infrastructure development, and also updates a 2019 report on utilization of gaseous carbon waste streams.

The study - undertaken by the Committee on Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, Research, and Development - was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

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