How to turn carbon dioxide into money

Carbon dioxide: From greenhouse gas to raw material

The principle is called “Carbon Capture and Utilization” (CCU) and should represent an important part of the circular economy in the future. Instead of taking carbon from deep in the earth in the form of oil and gas in order to produce products, it should be “captured” from the air. This reduces the extraction of fossil fuels Raw materials. In order to combat climate change, some of the carbon should get back into the ground and stay there permanently.Carbon Capture and Storage” (CCS).

But CCU and CCS are not just a social task, they open up new economic opportunities. The German start-up CO2BioClean uses CO2 as food for bacteria, which use it to produce biopolymers. This in turn can be used to produce biodegradable packaging, coatings, textiles, furniture or car components.

More efficient chemistry

There are a variety of application areas in chemistry, as process engineer Andre Bardow from ETH Zurich describes at the Circular Carbon Economy Summit in Vienna: “Chemists are opportunistic, they use the cheapest carbon for many processes. So far that has been petroleum.” If you Replace petroleum with CO2but many reactions could take place more efficiently. You can use it to make plastics such as Polyurethane and use it to make mattresses. Ethylene, an important raw material not only for plastic bottles, can also be made from CO2.

OMV produces the plastics from captured CO2 and hydrogen Ethylene and propylene here. Plastic produced from this is found, for example, in solar panels, water pipes, smartphones or internet cables.

Stronger concrete

The Swiss company Neustark mineralizes CO2 in demolition concrete. The reusable concrete stores the gas permanently. It gives it more resistance to pressure. This is where CCU and CCS come into play CCUS. In addition to an improved building material, building material recyclers also receive an additional source of income: certificates for the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Climate-neutral aircraft fuel

CO2 can also be used to produce fuels. In combination with green hydrogen – obtained from the electrolysis of water using green electricity – so-called E-Fuels be produced. In the future they will be used for example Aircraft engines CO2 neutral work. A lot of energy is required for e-fuel production. But that too could pay off one day.

Using CO2 filtered from the air alone will not save the world, says Bardow. “But in the circular economy there are different paths, such as mechanical and chemical recycling or the use of biomass. If you combine all circular technologies, you need less carbon than today. We leave with the carbon we dig out of the earth completely wasteful one.”