Industrial CO2 and Carbon Capture: Near-term Benefit, Long-term Necessity

Abstract

Industry emits approximately 1 billion tonnes of CO2 each year (1 GTCO2/yr) in the United States–one-third of US stationary emissions–and an even greater amount in industry-heavy China. We hypothesize that capturing industrial CO2 offers a near-term pathway to jumpstart CO2 capture and storage (CCS) and is a long-term necessity to stabilize atmospheric CO2 in order to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. We explore this proposition using several new CO2 emissions and storage databases for the United States, as well as emerging research including the economics of industrial CO2 capture. We refer to our new “sources of CO2 that are not electricity” database as SCO2NE.