Captured Carbon Dioxide Could Become A Swedish Industry Of The Future

Today’s carbon capture technology is expensive and energy-intensive. Researchers at Stockholm University are working together with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, other higher education institutions and companies to develop more efficient solutions for capturing carbon dioxide, using it as a resource and storing it long-term.

“Today’s technology has not been developed specifically for carbon capture. That means there is still a great deal left to do,” says Niklas Hedin, Professor of Materials Chemistry at Stockholm University.

Plastics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and fuels all contain carbon. Today, a large share of these carbon atoms comes from fossil raw materials such as oil, natural gas and coal. They are extracted from the ground, used once and, in many cases, released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. To slow climate change, society needs to stop emitting fossil carbon into the atmosphere. At the same time, new solutions are needed to make use of carbon that is already in circulation.

“We need to recirculate carbon instead of releasing it, and also achieve negative emissions through permanent storage of carbon dioxide in various forms,” says Sara Bargi, project manager at RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden.

This is the starting point for an initiative to further develop CCUS technology: solutions for capturing carbon dioxide, using it as a resource and storing it long-term.

Sweden has strong potential
Sweden has large amounts of biogenic carbon dioxide, meaning carbon dioxide that comes from biological material rather than fossil raw materials. It is generated, for example, in the forest industry, the pulp and paper industry, and in biofuelled heating and combined heat and power plants. Instead of being released into the atmosphere, it could be captured and used as a raw material or stored long-term to create negative emissions.

“Our combined heat and power plants and pulp mills that burn biomass currently emit carbon dioxide that comes from biomass with relatively short cycles. This is a resource that ought to be put to use and create value both for them and for other associated companies,” says Niklas Hedin.

The researchers argue that Sweden’s combination of biogenic carbon dioxide flows, industrial environments and strong research gives the country good opportunities to take a leading role in the field and, in the long term, become an international hub for carbon dioxide use and a strategic supplier of carbon dioxide for long-term storage.

Today’s technology is too expensive
There are already projects that capture and use or store carbon dioxide. But the technology is still too expensive and energy-intensive to be used at the scale required.

“Many companies say that the technology is mature but too expensive. We would rather say that it is not mature, precisely because it is too expensive and requires too much energy,” says Sara Bargi. An important part of the research is therefore to develop new processes that can reduce both costs and energy needs.

At Stockholm University, research is underway into new ways of capturing carbon dioxide more energy-efficiently. One example is processes in which carbon dioxide causes a liquid to separate into two phases, so that only the part containing the carbon dioxide needs to be heated. According to the researchers’ calculations, this could significantly reduce energy use.

More than a technical issue
Carbon capture is not only a technical issue. For the technology to have an impact, functioning regulations, new business models, life cycle analyses, transport solutions and legitimacy in society are also needed.

The research spans several areas. At Stockholm University, this includes research on policy issues, justice and moral-philosophical perspectives on the technology. This may involve how costs and risks should be distributed, how future generations are affected and how society should weigh different climate measures against one another.

“A lot of this takes place in a political and civic context. In addition to capital, citizens also need to be comfortable with the methodology itself,” says Niklas Hedin.