Turning black to green: Circular economy of industrial carbon emissions

Industrial carbon emissions represent both a problem and an opportunity. As part of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) strategies, they can be used as raw materials to produce value-added products. Depending on the final product, the CCU approach could delay, reduce, or completely eliminate carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Although technically feasible, the barriers to commercial sustainability of such low-carbon or net-zero circular economy models are not sufficiently explored in the literature. To bridge this gap to a certain extent, I will discuss five key areas where circular economy-based CCU ecosystems producing net-zero synthetic fuels face challenges: supply-chain security, value-chain innovation, stakeholder cooperation, supply-demand market dynamics, and policy and regulation. To overcome some of these challenges, I will share opinions on how collaboration between government, private investors, and industries could help in developing relevant policies to close cost gaps in the short-and medium-term. Finally, I will explain how public-private partnership models could be used to pool resources, share risks, and how regulatory de-risking could be used to promote alignment between regulation and private investor for circular economy-based CCU projects for producing net-zero methanol.

Automated summary

Industrial carbon emissions can be utilized as raw materials in carbon capture and utilization (CCU) strategies to produce value-added products. However, the commercial sustainability of low-carbon or net-zero circular economy models in CCU is not well-explored. This article discusses key challenges in circular economy-based CCU ecosystems, including supply-chain security, value-chain innovation, stakeholder cooperation, supply-demand market dynamics, and policy and regulation, and explores the potential collaboration between government, private investors, and industries to overcome these challenges.