Carbon capture and utilisation workshop : background and proceedings

The utilisation of CO2 as technological fluid or as feedstock in chemical processes and in biotechnological applications has the potential to be a very efficient tool when merged with development of innovative and feasible technologies that have lessintensive energy and materials consumption and the capacity of temporary or permanent storage of CO2 (other than geological storage). The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Institute for Energy and Transport, and the Directorate General for Climate Action co-hosted a workshop on CO2 re-use technologies in Brussels on the 7th June 2013. The aim of the workshop was to present how the most promising pathways for CO2 re-use are related to climate and energy technology policies, facilitate a dialogue between stakeholders (industry, academia and policy makers) and address the challenges for a possible large scale roll-out of CO2 re-use technologies. A number of six presentations from experts focused on the state-of-the art of the technology, the needs of the sector for large scale deployment and the impact of the CO2 re-use products on the market. In particular, the workshop focused on three promising pathways, i.e. methanol production, mineralisation and polymer production.