Assessing Biogenic Carbon Dioxide Potentials in Europe for Valorisation

This study investigates the theoretical potential and limitations of green carbon dioxide sources for technical valorisation approaches. The emission of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, must be rigorously reduced in order to achieve the European and global climate objectives. As CO2 is an increasingly valuable resource for industries and new disrupting technologies on CO2 utilization, the potential of CO2 obtained from different green and fossil sources in Europe is discussed for a comparative evaluation. Biogenic or green and fossil CO2 sources are classified according to their emitting processes and industry sectors, respectively. The CO2 potentials are then calculated from statistical data for CO2 generating processes in Europe, complemented and verified by relevant papers and reports. This study demonstrates the European potential of capturing and utilizing the biogenic and fossil CO2. In Europe, 69.7 Mt/a CO2 are estimated to be produced by biogas upgrading, biogas combustion, as well as bioethanol and other fermentation processes. Additionally, 437 Mt/a CO2 are produced by solid biomass combustion. This accounts for a theoretical potential of 506.7 Mt/a CO2 currently available, which is nearly seven times the amount of the current European industrial CO2 demand. The CO2 from biomass combustion is more difficult to capture and is mixed with impurities, which potentially reduces its technical and economic potential, whereas the 63 Mt/a from other high-purity sources are already partially utilized, e.g., by breweries or dry ice producers.This is the preprint of a journal article that was originally published in the Journal of CO2 Utilization. Please refer to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2020.101219 for the final peer-reviewed version of the article. Cite this article as: Rodin, V., Lindorfer, J., Böhm, H., Vieira, L. (2020). Assessing the potential of carbon dioxide valorisation in Europe with focus on biogenic CO2. Journal of CO2 Utilization, 41 (2020), 10121