OGCI, BCG report identifies opportunities to spur growth in market to use captured CO2

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured from industrial facilities, power generation and natural gas processing could be converted for use in construction aggregates, CO₂-cured concrete and in some e-fuels, a joint study published today from the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said.

While the key utilization pathways identified in the report could help play a role in broader decarbonization efforts, that role would remain small compared to CO₂ storage. Current regulation, which mostly focuses on supporting capture and/or storage, will need to be beefed up to help scale up additional technologies to use the captured CO₂, the report said.

OGCI’s Vice President of Strategy & Policy, Justine Roure, said:

“Carbon capture, utilization and storage is expected to play a significant role in helping to decarbonize many different industries and sectors. There’s been a lot of work around the capture technologies and the storage options, but what’s been missing is more insight and investigation into how we can reuse some of that CO₂ in other products and industrial processes to enable further emissions reductions.

“This study is important because it sets out where some of the opportunities are, what some of the key enablers are and identifies the possible common technical and regulatory hurdles that will need to be addressed to unlock the potential of carbon capture and utilization.”

Justine Roure, Vice President of Strategy & Policy, OGCI

The report sets out the range of anticipated CO₂ impact and variables due to different approaches across regions and technologies.

The US, which has subsidies for utilization technologies, and the European Union, which has fuel mandates that could encourage development of alternative fuels, are regions where further development and scaling of key utilization technologies could take place, the report said.

The report outlines four promising conversion pathways which could have global impact potential through to 2040 including construction aggregates, CO₂-cured concrete and e-fuels including e-kerosene and e-methanol. [i]

These, and other pathways identified in the report, could help develop the sector and increase CO₂ utilization to an estimated 430 to 840 million tonnes a year by 2040, the report said.

Currently, the market is estimated at around 250 Mt a year with the CO₂ mostly used in enhanced oil recovery or for urea production.

CCU captures CO₂ emissions from industries and recycles or reuses the carbon for a different purpose enabling a more circular economy.

OGCI is working with industry, governments and other investors to scale up carbon capture, utilization and storage – a major priority for the CEO-led initiative of 12 of the world’s leading energy companies.

OGCI’s member companies are involved in the development of more than 40 CCUS hubs around the world that have the potential to capture and store around 300 Mt of CO₂ per year by 2030.

OGCI

• OGCI is a CEO-led initiative that aims to lead the oil and gas industry’s response to climate change and accelerate action toward a net zero emissions future consistent with the Paris Agreement.
• Since 2017, OGCI members have collectively halved their methane emissions and cut flaring by 45%, invested $65bn in low-carbon technologies and shared best practices across the oil and gas industry and other sectors to accelerate decarbonization. 
• OGCI’s members are Aramco, bp, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Oxy, Petrobras, Repsol, Shell, TotalEnergies.

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[i] This study only covers conversion pathways, not direct uses of CO₂ (such as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and focuses on those with global impact potential.