The US government and the private sector should focus on research to advance technologies that turn greenhouse gas emissions into useful products such as fuels, construction materials and chemicals, urges the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
A new report from the National Academies offers an agenda for how research can advance these technologies in order to increase the likelihood of limiting global temperature increases. The agenda includes specifics on how R&D can be used to improve specific utilization methods.
Mineralization, for example, is a process that transforms carbon dioxide into mineral carbonates which can be used to make concrete and cement. Since these building construction materials are used at enormous scale and have product lifetimes that span decades, mineralization represents a huge opportunity for long-term carbon storage, and a variety of processes that use carbon dioxide in the production of concrete and cement are already operating at limited commercial scales. But research is needed on how to integrate the mineralization processes with existing technologies for capturing carbon dioxide in order to improve the efficiency and performance of this process.
Other recommended research cuts across technology types; for instance, many technologies could benefit from advances in understanding chemical and biological processes that would facilitate discovery of faster and more energy-efficient reactions of carbon dioxide and methane, according to the report.
Carbon utilization technologies can not only reduce emissions but can also generate positive economic returns, points out David Allen, chair of the committee that conduced the study and wrote the report. Allen is Gertz Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources at the University of Texas, Austin.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a way that limits increases in global temperatures will require a range of approaches, but if certain technological advancements are achieved, more than 10% of current global carbon dioxide emissions could be utilized within the next several decades, and could be instrumental in achieving a circular carbon economy in which a variety of carbon waste gases are captured and converted into resources, the study suggests.
The eventual scale of carbon utilization, however, will be determined by a variety of technical, economic and policy drivers over multiple decades. The US government, the private sector, and federal science agencies all need to work together to support such research, the study concludes.
The study was sponsored by the US Department of Energy and Shell. 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, technology, and medicine.
