Economic and Environmental Assessment of Integrated Carbon Capture and Utilization

Integrated carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is appealing for in situ production of fuels and chemicals. Here, we propose and subsequently assess an integrated electrochemical CCU process and compare it with a carbon capture and storage (CCS) route from economic and environmental perspectives. This analysis reveals that under a baseline CCU scenario, carbon products reap either economic (67% and 10% gross margin increase for carbon monoxide [CO] and n-propanol, respectively) or environmental benefits (formic acid production would reduce ∼721 thousand ton carbon dioxide equivalent [CO2e]/year) relative to the CCS route. Under an optimistic scenario, while all of the carbon dioxide (CO2)-derived products are economically compelling over the CCS route, only formic acid production would reduce ∼1,465 thousand ton CO2e/year over CCS (∼575 thousand ton CO2e/year). This study may serve as a framework to decide whether a CCS or a CCU pathway would be compelling under a given scenario when fuel-cell-based CO2 capture technology is used to reduce carbon emissions and create economic value from fossil fuel-based power plants.