In the quest to mitigate the buildup of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, researchers and policymakers have increasingly turned their attention to techniques for capturing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, either from the locations where they are emitted or directly from the atmosphere. Once captured, these gases can be stored or put to use. While both carbon storage and carbon utilization have costs, utilization offers the opportunity to recover some of the cost and even generate economic value. While current carbon utilization projects operate at a relatively small scale, some estimates suggest the market for waste carbon-derived products could grow to hundreds of billions of dollars within a few decades, utilizing several thousand teragrams of waste carbon gases per year. Gaseous Carbon Waste Streams Utilization: Status and Research Needs assesses research and development needs relevant to understanding and improving the commercial viability of waste carbon utilization technologies and defines a research agenda to address key challenges. The report is intended to help inform decision making surrounding the development and deployment of waste carbon utilization technologies under a variety of circumstances, whether motivated by a goal to improve processes for making carbon-based products, to generate revenue, or to achieve environmental goals.

To achieve goals for climate and economic growth, "negative emissions technologies" (NETs) that remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the air will need to play a significant role in mitigating climate change. Unlike carbon capture and storage technologies that remove carbon dioxide emissions directly from large point sources such as coal power plants, NETs remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or enhance natural carbon sinks. Storing the carbon dioxide from NETs has the same impact on the atmosphere and climate as simultaneously preventing an equal amount of carbon dioxide from being emitted. Recent analyses found that deploying NETs may be less expensive and less disruptive than reducing some emissions, such as a substantial portion of agricultural and land-use emissions and some transportation emissions. In 2015, the National Academies published Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration, which described and initially assessed NETs and sequestration technologies. This report acknowledged the relative paucity of research on NETs and recommended development of a research agenda that covers all aspects of NETs from fundamental science to full-scale deployment. To address this need, Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda assesses the benefits, risks, and "sustainable scale potential" for NETs and sequestration. This report also defines the essential components of a research and development program, including its estimated costs and potential impact.

Carbon Dioxide Utilisation: Closing the Carbon Cycle explores areas of application such as conversion to fuels, mineralization, conversion to polymers, and artificial photosynthesis as well as assesses the potential industrial suitability of the various processes. After an introduction to the thermodynamics, basic reactions, and physical chemistry of carbon dioxide, the book proceeds to examine current commercial and industrial processes, and the potential for carbon dioxide as a green and sustainable resource. While carbon dioxide is generally portrayed as a "bad" gas, a waste product, and a major contributor to global warming, a new branch of science is developing to convert this "bad" gas into useful products. This book explores the science behind converting CO2 into fuels for our cars and planes, and for use in plastics and foams for our homes and cars, pharmaceuticals, building materials, and many more useful products. Carbon dioxide utilization is a rapidly expanding area of research that holds a potential key to sustainable, petrochemical-free chemical production and energy integration. Accessible and balanced between chemistry, engineering, and industrial applications Informed by blue-sky thinking and realistic possibilities for future technology and applications Encompasses supply chain sustainability and economics, processes, and energy integration

This book provides in-depth information on topics relating to anthropogenic carbon dioxide utilization processes. Presenting a collection of state-of-the-art scientific reviews and research perspectives on carbon management strategies of relevance to the energy industry, it features contributions by leading scientists and technocrats across 19 chapters as an Indian contribution In the energy industry, new processes for carbon dioxide removal and recycling are developing quickly, and it is in this context that the book provides an opportunity to review the current status of and promote efforts to achieve effective carbon capture and management. The contents presented here will prove useful to researchers, students, industry experts, scientists and policymakers alike.

Converting old landfills to energy producing sites, while capturing emitted greenhouse gases, has faced numerous technical, financial and social challenges and developments lately. Also, the re-mining of landfills to recover useful land in dense urban areas and proper landfill closure has been a subject of discussion and investigation. Designed as an overview text for landfill management from cradle to grave, this volume’s content stretches from the fundamentals to the rather indepth details. By putting down their joint international experience, the authors have intended to both guide and inspire the user for his or her landfill project. Introducing the fundamental concepts of landfill gas management and its needs and importance in the present world energy scenario, this accessible reference volume presents key landfill gas management techniques at regional, national and global levels. In detail, it gives an account of the recent technologies available for landfill gas treatment and its utilization. It summarizes landfill gas prediction models developed in various parts of the world and details their adequacy in various field conditions. Covering both landfill remediation aspects and economic considerations while selecting a landfill gas to energy utilization project, the reader gets familiar with the practical aspects of converting a landfill site. Also, the challenges faced by municipalities and landfill operators in recovering landfill gas as an energy source are described, and solutions are suggested for solving them effectively. These include practical execution problems, governmental issues, and developing policies to encourage investment. The volume also includes various case studies of landfill gas-to-energy utilization projects from around the world, which can be reviewed and customized for the reader’s own application with the help of extensive reference section. Intended as an overview text for advanced students and researchers in the relevant engineering and technology fields (Environmental, Civil, Geotechnical, Chemical, Mechanical and Electrical), this book will also be particularly helpful to practitioners such as municipal managers, landfill operators, designers, solid waste management engineers, urban planners, professional consultants, scientists, non-governmental organizations and entrepreneurs.

National and international plans for halting and reversing climate change focus on reducing and eventually ending the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions: carbon dioxide (CO2) released by fossil fuel combustion. However, as the nation moves towards replacing many fossil CO2-emitting processes with zero- or low-carbon-emission alternatives, special attention is needed to eliminate net carbon emissions from the systems that cannot be fully "decarbonized", such as the production of aviation fuel, chemicals, plastics, and construction materials. For these systems, carbon will need to be managed and utilized effectively, in a way that either prevents CO2 from entering the atmosphere or reuses it through circular processes that do not contribute additional emissions. Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, and Research and Development: A Final Report is the second report of a two-part study. The study's first report assessed the state of infrastructure for CO2 transportation, use, and storage, highlighting priority opportunities for further investment. This second report identifies potential markets and commercialization opportunities for CO2- and coal waste-derived products, examines economic, environmental, and climate impacts of CO2 utilization infrastructure, and puts forward a comprehensive research agenda for carbon utilization technologies.