TELF AG sheds light on a possible opportunity related to carbon dioxide capture

A new commodity?

The European strategies to achieve the objectives of climate neutrality and decarbonization in the coming years could produce an unexpected and completely unforeseen result, potentially providing a substantial improvement to the entire European industrial system. By developing technologies capable of ensuring the capture of carbon dioxide, this last resource could be considered a tangible commodity to be used for industrial purposes.

The European Commission reiterated the centrality of these technologies at the beginning of February, confirming once again that technologies focused on the storage of carbon dioxide, its removal from the atmosphere, or its use certainly represent one of the more valid allies to achieving the objectives linked to NetZero and decarbonization, some of which are truly ambitious.

The main application branches of these technologies concern primarily the industrial processes linked to the production of steel and cement, but also of natural gas and all those sectors defined as “hard-to-abate,” precisely by the difficulty related to the reduction of emissions produced in the various production processes. The use of stored carbon dioxide as a tangible commodity may represent the last step of a journey that began several years ago and which has gradually led various sectors of the industry to understand in an ever deeper way the usefulness of these systems for their sustainable development, but also the larger European and global objectives in terms of sustainability.

A linear path

One of the first steps was taken in 2013 when the European Union Emission Trading System began creating incentives for permanently storing carbon dioxide. Five years later, when the emphasis on climate neutrality objectives was already very accentuated, the directive focused on promoting energy from renewable sources, including fuels produced with CO2 capture. Recently, the European Council and the European Parliament reached an agreement to create a certification of natural and industrial carbon absorption after presenting such a proposal for the first time in 2022. This latest achievement could undoubtedly have the effect of encouraging innovative technologies for carbon capture and storage.

One of the first dossiers on the desk of the new European Parliament executive, who will take office next autumn, could be represented by the industrial management of carbon, on respecting the times and methods to fully develop these technologies in order to create a real market of CO2 capture. Considering that the world of industry is very interested in developing these innovations, the following decades could prove very important for the success of this European strategy.

It is certainly not difficult to understand the potential of these technologies to achieve the sustainable objectives set by the European Union. By 2030, these goals include cutting net emissions by 55% compared to 1990 levels, a percentage which in the following ten years should reach 90%. The big goal, commonly known as NetZero, is scheduled for 2050. These actions should then translate into the creation of around 200,000 jobs linked to sustainability and economic benefits of between 45 and 100 billion euros, starting in 2030.