Introduction

Utilization within Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is the process of turning captured CO2 from the atmosphere into commercial products. There has been 1.3 billion USD investment into this growing CDR methodology, and stakeholders see big potential: the Centre for Negative Carbon Emissions at the DAC (Direct Air Capture) Coalition conference of 2023 stated that utilization technologies are going to be the cornerstone and driving force of the carbon material economy.

AlliedOffsets has mapped 600 companies in the CDR space, 222 of those companies are utilization companies which boast over 1,500 patents; the companies sell credits at a price of $169, on average. 

We have broken the utilization sector down into seven main categories: materials, chemicals, fuels, concrete, consumer goods, food and beverages, hydrogen, and others.

Figure 1: CDR utilization suppliers broken into seven subsectors

This blog is going to outline the importance of utilization within the CDR space and our utilization subsector taxonomy. For more information about our data, a demo of our data can be found here.

What is utilization and why is it so important for the CDR market?

Utilization is thought to be the low hanging fruit of affordable CDR credits. Repackaging captured CO2 into commercial products instead of expensive geological sequestration offers early market revenue streams to fiscally tight startups, offsetting their costs of R&D for optimisation of sequestration techniques.

High volumes of successful throughput of CO2 utilization from these companies showcases to governments that CO2 is not a waste product and chore to get rid of, but a valuable building block (figuratively and literally) for a carbon materials economy. This is important because it unlocks a cost-effective way to decarbonise infrastructure, product creation, and fuels, while still optimising CDR systems in the process via economies of learning. 

In short: utilization companies provide carbon capturing companies a market for the CO2 – for a recent example of this, see the Heirloom partnership with CarbonCure. 

Taxonomy

AlliedOffsets has created a utilization taxonomy with seven main categories that have been ranked in order of size (number of companies participating in each). In this blog, we will delve through the five largest categories, highlighting case studies and patents held by companies, which will help our readers better understand the technologies behind these companies.

Materials

Materials is the largest utilization category, making up 32% of the total. This category encompasses all of the companies that use CO2 to create solid substances such as carbon nanofibers, cardboard, rock or polymers. 

Example companies: Bergen Carbon Solutions, Calix, Caphenia, CarbonScape, Econic Technologies, Mars Materials, Paebbl. 

Nanofiber test specimens from Bergen Carbon Solutions

Case Study: Bergen Carbon Solutions

Bergen Carbon Solutions uses innovative technology to produce carbon nanofiber, a groundbreaking material with applications in everything from energy storage to protective clothing. Rather than using natural gas to produce carbon nanofibers, Bergen uses resulting CO2 to produce the nanofibers – leaving only O2 emissions. The company does this by capturing CO2 directly from industrial chimneys.

Bergen Carbon Solutions has 1 patent on their technology which covers a “method for purifying carbon nanomaterial”.

Chemicals

The chemicals category ranks as the second-largest, accounting for 18% of the utilization market. This category includes all of the companies using carbon dioxide to create useful chemicals such as methanol, ethylene or ethanol. 

Example companies: BSE Engineering, Krajete, MicrobEnergy, OCO Chem, Nitricity, Skyre, Heliae, Innovator Energy, Ginkgo Bioworks.

Electrolyser by Skyre

Case Study: Skyre

Skyre uses an electrochemical conversion of CO2 to methanol or other organic compounds.

Skyre have 14 patents on their CO2 conversion technologies, which covers the many steps of their process such as the “Electrochemical carbon dioxide recovery system” and the “Biopolar membrane cell for the capture of carbon dioxide”.

Fuels 

The fuels category secures the third position in size and encompasses all of the companies which harness carbon dioxide to predominantly create transportation fuels such as hydrogen, biofuel, syngas or gasoline.

Example companies: Aljadix, Carbon Iceland, Ceramatec, Mash Makes, Prometheus, Vorsana, Sun to Liquid, LanzaTech

Vorsana mechanical pyrolysis in a shear retort

Case study: Vorsana

Vorsana uses patented flue gas scrubber to capture carbon and shear electrolysis reactor to react carbon with steam to form syngas and nanotubes. Vorsana has 4 patents on their syngas and nanotube production process such as the “Mechanical pyrolysis in a shear retort”, and 42 patents in total.

Concrete

The concrete category ranks fourth with 11% of the utilization market. This category includes the companies which use carbon dioxide in the production of cement, which is then mainly used in buildings. In our taxonomy, we classify these CDR companies as those using CO2, rather than mineralization firms, which are limited to below-ground storage.

Example companies: Blue Planet, Brimstone, Calera, Carbon Crusher, CarbonCure, Solidia Technologies, EcoLocked, Vandersanden, ZS2 Technologies.

Case study: Blue Planet

Blue Planetʼs technology uses CO2 as a raw material for making carbonate rocks. The carbonate rocks produced are used in place of natural limestone rock mined from quarries, which is the principal component of concrete. CO2 from flue gas is converted to carbonate (or CO3=) by contact with CO2 containing gas with a water-based capture solution. This differentiates Blue Planet from most CO2 capture methods because the captured CO2 does not require a purification step, which is an energy and capital intensive process. As a result, Blue Planetʼs capture method is extremely efficient, and results in a lower cost than traditional carbon capture methods. 

Blue Planet has 17 patents on their carbonate rocks production process which include steps in the process such as “system for adding gaseous materials to combustion system” and “Modular CO2 sequestration units and systems, and methods for using the same”. 

Consumer goods

The last category we will cover is consumer goods, which makes up for 7% of the utilization market. Consumer goods includes companies that employ carbon dioxide to create a diverse range of products ranging from shoes, diamonds, soap bars, ink, furniture, skincare, and others.

Example companies: 10X Beta, Ada Diamonds, Aether Diamonds, Algenol Biotech, Clean O2, Graviky Labs, Pollima, CO2 Diamonds. 

Case study: Algenol Biotech

Algenol Biotech is a leading edge biotechnology company that manufactures multiple types of algae from molecular to commercial scale. The clean blue-green algae cultivation process yields high quality, sustainable and affordable products. Algenol Biotech has 24 patents which include “Water/carbonate stripping for CO2 capture adsorber regeneration”. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, utilization within Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies is an exciting field, drawing significant investments and with a significant growth potential. 

Utilization could potentially address the challenge of the costly carbon sequestration technologies by generating income from carbon dioxide emissions. 

For more information on AlliedOffsets CDR data, visit our public dashboard or get in touch with us at hello@alliedoffsets.com to learn more.