CCUS: A Panacea or a Placebo in the fight against climate change?
Yuxin Zhao
Abstract
Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) is a crucial technology for achieving carbon neutrality, but it faces significant challenges. Despite substantial investments and policy support, CCUS projects have underperformed due to technical difficulties, high costs, and controversies surrounding the fossil fuel industry's involvement. The effectiveness and feasibility of CCUS in reducing carbon emissions remain uncertain. This viewpoint provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of CCUS technology, examining its potential to reduce carbon emissions, the challenges hindering its deployment, and the strategies needed to overcome these barriers. We discuss the need for a combinatorial approach to unlock CCUS's full potential, and also emphasize the importance of selecting optimal CO₂ utilization pathways to maximize economic benefits and CO₂ absorption. Although CCUS faces technical, economic, and social barriers, it can still play a valuable role in mitigating emissions from hard-to-abate sectors when supported by comprehensive strategies and collaborative efforts among governments, industries, and research institutions. By addressing these challenges and investing in innovation, CCUS can contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and building a sustainable, low-carbon future. Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) is a groundbreaking technology that captures and stores underground carbon dioxide produced by human activities, the only carbon removal path besides natural carbon sinks. Despite CCUS being a crucial pathway for deep CO2 reduction, the potential, feasibility, and socio-economic benefits of different capture and storage methods vary significantly. Thus, CCUS is among the most controversial emission reduction technologies and is currently inefficient, capturing only 0.1 % of global emissions in 2023. With heavy investments on one side and strong opposition on the other, how should we view the role of CCUS in the carbon neutrality process?. • CCUS is crucial for carbon neutrality but faces technical, economic, and environmental challenges. • Governments and industries invest in CCUS despite its underperformance and fossil fuel industry involvement. • Unlocking CCUS's potential requires global monitoring, local pioneers, enterprise leadership, and industrial integration. • Balancing high-profit and high-volume CO 2 utilization pathways is crucial for economic viability.