The significance of industrial uses of CO2 (processes, products and goods) as instrument for the attenuation of the greenhouse effect and for the obtaining of economic values

It is widely believed that climate change on the planet largely depends on discharges of CO2 due to human activities. This is the reason why many countries, including China, have committed themselves, with the Kyoto Protocol, to reducing their discharge of CO2 into the atmosphere. Reducing the discharge of CO2 has therefore become a common objective of the international community, to be pursued primarily through a series of actions aimed at increasing the sustainability of industrial processes. There are various types of actions that have been proposed: they range from reducing the use of fossil fuels, the separation of CO2 prior to its release into the atmosphere, its capture and storage in the oceans or underground, to an increase in the use of renewable energy sources, nuclear energy, etc. The paper, however, pays particular attention to the contribution that CO2 is able to provide both in industrial processes and as a raw material employed in production processes, to obtain products and goods, and ultimately, to the way in which, from a waste product with a high environmental impact (like CO2) it is possible to create economic value. The authors quantify this possibility