CO2-aren erabilera, berotegi-efektua murrizteko estrategia

Abstract

Climate change - caused mainly by the utilization of fossil fuels - has aroused great interest in the last decades. Among the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the most abundant, and thus, limiting its emissions is a key issue to mitigate climate change. In light of this perspective, carbon dioxide capture and utilization (CCU) technology could be used. For this purpose, the CO₂ produced in power plants and industries needs to be captured, before dumping it to the atmosphere. Then, CO₂ is transported to the facilities for its industrial utilization, to be converted into commercial products. CO₂ can be used directly, without conversion, for different purposes: desalination of water, surface cleaning, food or drink production, and injection for enhanced recovery of oil or natural gas. CO₂ can also be regarded as a feedstock by processing and converting it into chemicals and fuels. The main advantage of CCU technology is that it can turn the utilization of waste CO₂ emissions into a profitable activity, as products can be sold. However, this technology has several drawbacks, such as: (i) the current demand for chemicals does not have the capacity to sequester enough CO₂ emissions to contribute significantly to meeting the carbon reduction targets, (ii) using CO₂ for fuel production only delays its emissions, (iii) the "storage" in some chemicals is also short-lived, depending on their use.