Session 20. Oral Presentation for: CO2 utilisation pathways to produce synthetic fuels and other value-added liquid products

Presented on 28 May 2025: Session 20 The conversion of CO2 into fuels and chemicals has emerged as a valuable alternative in the battle to combat climate change, particularly in geographical regions where the subsurface properties are not suitable for CO2 sequestration. This paper provides a review of various pathways for utilising captured CO2 to produce synthetic fuels and green chemicals. The pathways are generally agnostic to the source of the CO2, which mainly affects the purification requirements (such as desulfurisation or deoxygenation). The CO2 is typically converted into CO, which could be achieved by known chemical processes such as reverse water shift and CO2 reforming. The CO and H2 produced from these processes are the building blocks for synthetic liquid products such as methanol, ethanol, jet fuel, diesel, and naphtha. In another variation, the H2 could be generated from renewable energy sources and electrolysis to produce e-fuels from the captured CO2. A review of the current and developing technologies and their technology readiness levels is included to determine their suitability for industrial applications, as well as a high-level discussion on factors impacting their economic viability, such as the differences in compression and other energy requirements, process flexibility, and requirements for intermediate storage buffering. The relative cost differences between the various CO2 utilisation pathways are also presented along with a discussion on suitable cost reduction strategies for each option. To access the Oral Presentation click the link below. To read the full paper click here